Florian Willomitzer


Florian Willomitzer is an Associate Professor at the Wyant College of Optical Sciences - University of Arizona. He graduated from the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Germany, where he received his Ph.D. degree in Physics with honors (‘summa cum laude’) in 2017. During his doctoral studies (PhD advisor: Prof. Gerd Häusler) Florian investigated physical and information theoretical limits of optical 3D-sensing and implemented sensors that operate close to these limits. Concurrent with his Ph.D. activity, he was a freelancer in the research group’s spin-off company ‘3D Shape GmbH’ (now part of ISRA Vision) and he worked as a high school part time teacher for physics. Florian joined Northwestern University as Postdoc (Postdoc advisor: Prof. Oliver Cossairt) in Fall 2017, where he further shaped his current research profile. He became Research Assistant Professor in 2019. In Fall 2022, Florian joined the Wyant College of Optical Sciences at the University of Arizona as Associate Professor.

Florian is a recipient of the NSF CRII grant, winner of the Optica 20th Anniversary Challenge, and his Ph.D. thesis was awarded with the Springer Theses Award for Outstanding Ph.D. Research.


Education and work experience


Aug’22 - present Associate Professor of Optical Sciences, Wyant College of Optical Sciences, University of Arizona, Tucson, USA
Sept’22 - present Adjunct Associate Professor of Computer Science, Department of Computer Science (CS), Northwestern University, Evanston, USA
Sept’22 - present Adjunct Associate Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE), Northwestern University, Evanston, USA
Nov’19 - Aug’22 Research Assistant Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE), Northwestern University, Evanston, USA
Aug’17 - Nov’19 Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS), Northwestern University, Evanston, USA
Jan’11 - Aug’17 PhD (Dr. rer. nat.), Institute of Optics, Information and Photonics, Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg, Erlangen, Germany.
Graduation with ‘summa cum laude’. Springer Thesis Award for Outstanding PhD Research.
Dec’10 - July’14 Part-time teacher, Physics for high school classes (‘Gymnasium’ grade 9 12), Rudolf Steiner-School, Nuremberg, Germany
Oct’05 - Sept’10 MS (Diplom), Institute of Optics, Information and Photonics, Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg, Erlangen, Germany

Publications

Selected publications
All publications by year



Service

Chair/Host, OPTICA Incubator on Imaging Through 100 Scattering Lengths, 2023
General Chair, OPTICA Computational Optical Sensing and Imaging (COSI), 2022
Optics Chair, IEEE International Conference on Computational Photography (ICCP), 2022
General Chair, OSA Computational Optical Sensing and Imaging (COSI), 2021
Program Chair, OSA Computational Optical Sensing and Imaging (COSI), 2020

Steering Committee, Conf. on Optics-Photonics Design and Fabrication (ODF), 2024
Program Committee, OSA Frontiers in Optics (FiO), 2023
Program Committee, OSA Computational Optical Sensing and Imaging (COSI), 2023
Program Committee, Conf. of German Society of Applied Optics (DGaO), 2023
Program Committee, OSA Frontiers in Optics (FiO), 2022
Program Committee, OSA Computational Optical Sensing and Imaging (COSI), 2019

Editor, OSA Optics Express (Feature Issue on COSI), 2021
Editor, OSA Applied Optics (Feature Issue on COSI), 2021
Editor, OSA Applied Optics, 2021

Reviewer, Nature
Reviewer, Nature Photonics
Reviewer, Nature - Light: Science and Applications
Reviewer, IEEE Conf. on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR)
Reviewer, Optica Optics Letters
Reviewer, Optica Optics Express Reviewer, IEEE International Conf. on Computational Photography (ICCP)
Reviewer, IEEE Transactions in Computational Imaging
Reviewer, Light: Advanced Manufacturing
Reviewer, SPIE Optical Engineering



Teaching



Selected Contributed Talks and other Talks



Invited Talks

  • SPIE Optics + Photonics, Interferometry and Structured Light, San Diego, 2024 | “Coherent Computational Imaging with Synthetic Waves” (Invited Talk)

  • SPIE Optics + Photonics, Industrial Optical Devices and Systems, San Diego, 2024 | “Accurate single-shot eye tracking from deflectometric information” (Invited Talk)

  • Technical University Ilmenau, Ilmenau, Germany, 2024 | “Ilmenau and Arizona: Not as Far Apart as You Think - The Computational 3D Imaging and Measurement Lab at the University of Arizona” (Invited Talk)

  • 14th International Conference on Optics-Photonics Design and Fabrication (ODF), Tucson, 2024 | “Coherent Computational Imaging with Synthetic Light Fields” (Invited Talk)

  • German Society of Applied Optics (DGaO), Nationwide lecture series “Ringvorlesung Optik 2024” | “About the Fun of Utilizing Nature’s Limits for Better Computational 3D Imaging” (Invited Talk)

  • American Physical Society (APS) March Meeting, Minneapolis, 2024 | “Computational Imaging through Scatter using Synthetic Waves” (Invited Talk) | [Program] [Abstract]

  • OPTICA Frontiers in Optics (FiO) Health Symposium, Tacoma, 2023 | “Single-shot synthetic wavelength holography: a flexible approach for high-resolution imaging through scattering media” (Invited Talk) | [Video] [Program]

  • University of Arizona (UA), Industrial Affiliates Fall Meeting, Tucson, 2023 | “The Computational 3D Imaging and Measurement Lab - From Fast and Precise 3D Sensors to Looking Around Corners” (Invited Talk) | [Video]

  • OPTICA Imaging Congress, 3D Image Acquisition and Display: Technology, Perception and Applications, Boston, 2023 | “Utilizing deflectometric information for single-shot eye-tracking with high accuracy” (Invited Talk) | [Video]

  • SPIE DCS, Computational Imaging VII, USA, 2023 | “Fast and high-resolution imaging through scattering scenes using single-shot synthetic wavelength holography” (Invited Talk) | [Video] [Abstract] [Program]

  • OPTICA Biophotonics Congress, Vancouver, 2023 | “Macroscopic Imaging through Scattering Media using Single-Shot Synthetic Wavelength Holography” (Invited Talk)

  • Computational Imaging XXI, Electronic Imaging, USA, 2023 | “Synthetic Wavelength Imaging - Exploiting Spectral Diversity for Absolute Phase Measurements through Scattering Scenes” (Invited Talk) | [Program and Abstract]

  • TU Dresden, Germany, Measurement Systems Seminar, 2022 | “About Imaging through Scatterers and the Fun of utilizing Nature’s Limits in Computational 3D Sensors” (Invited Talk)

  • Utsunomiya University (UU), Japan, International Workshop on Optics, Biology, and Related Technologies (IWOB), 2022 | “Imaging through Scattering Media and around Corners with high resolution using Synthetic Wavelength Holography” (Invited Talk) | [Program]

  • NATO Sensors & Electronics Technology Panel, Assessment of EO/IR Compressive Sensing and Computational Imaging Systems (SET-310), USA, 2022 | “The Computational 3D Imaging and Measurement Lab at the University of Arizona” (Invited Talk) | [Panel description]

  • University of Arizona (UA), USA, Optical Sciences Colloquium, 2022 | “Computational 3D Imaging and the Fun of utilizing Nature’s Limits” (Invited Talk) | [Announcement and Abstract]

  • Northwestern University (NU), USA, Center For Robotics and Biosystems Seminar, 2022 |“Utilizing Nature’s Limits for better Computational 3D Imaging” (Invited Talk) | [Video (YouTube)] , [Announcement and Abstract]

  • University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) & California Institute of Technology (Caltech), USA, Grundfest Lectures in Computational Imaging, 2022 | “Utilizing Nature’s Limits for better Computational 3D Imaging” (Invited Talk) | [Announcement and Abstract]

  • University Erlangen-Nuremberg (FAU), Germany, Physics Colloquium Talk Series, 2021 | “Synthetic Wavelength Holography – Imaging around Corners and through Scattering Media at the Physical Space-Bandwidth Limit” (Invited Talk) | [Video] , [Announcement and Abstract]

  • University Erlangen-Nuremberg (FAU), Germany, Beyond the Patterns Talk Series, 2021 | “Fundamental Limits in Computational 3D Imaging – From Novel 3D Cameras to Looking around Corners” (Invited Talk) | [Video (YouTube)] , [Announcement and Abstract]

  • Stanford University, USA, Stanford Center for Image System Engineering (SCIEN), 2020 | “The Role of Fundamental Limits in 3D Imaging Systems: From Looking around Corners to Fast 3D Cameras” (Invited Talk) | [Announcement and Abstract 1] [2]

  • Information Photonics 2020 (IP’20), Taipei, Taiwan, 2020 | “Fast, Precise, Ubiquitous: Novel Sensor Concepts for 3D Imaging and Imaging through Scattering Media” (Invited Talk) | [Abstract]

  • Joint conference of the European Optical Society (EOS) and the German Society for Applied Optics (DGaO), Darmstadt, Germany, 2019 | “Three-Dimensional Non-Line-of-Sight Imaging with High Resolution using Superheterodyne Remote Digital Holography” (Invited Talk) | [Abstract]

  • University of Chicago, USA, Adventures in Seeing Works of Art: A COSI Workshop in Deflectometry, 2019 | “Optical 3D Imaging for Art and Cultural Heritage” (Invited Talk)

  • Optical Society of America (OSA) Incubator: Small Eyes & Smart Minds, Washington D.C., US, 2017 | “Exploiting the Physical Limits and Information Limits of Single-Shot 3D Sensing” (Invited Talk) | [Incubator Info]

  • IEEE International Conference on Computational Photography (ICCP), Northwestern University, USA, 2016 | “The 3D Motion Picture Camera - About Single-Shot, High Resolution 3D Imaging” (Invited Talk) | [Conf. Proceedings]

  • Infoteam Forum für innovative Anwendungsszenarien, Dortmund, Germany, 2016 | “3D-Messtechnik 4.0 – Innovatives Highspeed-Messprinzip für 3D-Objekte” (Invited Talk)