Isaac Gallegos
Research Engineer · Harvard Medical School
I build interferometric optical systems and the physics-constrained inverse models that turn broadband measurements into physical quantities, at the Wellman Center for Photomedicine (Harvard Medical School). My work runs from solid-state lasers and entangled-photon experiments to spectroscopic OCT, and I'm increasingly focused on quantum optics and quantum networks — spin-based quantum nodes, photonic interconnects, and entanglement distribution. Applying to physics PhD programs for Fall 2027. Outside the lab, I travel when I can and go caving.
Currently: finishing a laser safety calculator for tissue exposure limits, and reading about topology and differential geometry.
Selected work
All projects →OCT gives you 3D structure, but not composition. This project adds molecular characterization to interferometric imaging — figuring out what a tissue is made of from how it scatters broadband light.
Wellman Center for Photomedicine, Harvard Medical School NIR-II Photoacoustic ImagingA first-of-its-kind all-fiber laser amplifier at 1064nm for photoacoustic imaging. The point: use multiple wavelengths and inverse algorithms to identify molecules deep in tissue without any labels or dyes.
Wellman Center for Photomedicine, Harvard Medical SchoolResearch interests
I'm increasingly focused on quantum optics and quantum networks: the physics of spin-based quantum nodes, photonic interconnects, and distributing entanglement between them, alongside many-body quantum systems and statistical physics. I also care about single-photon detection, nonlinear optics, and laser physics, which is where I started.
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