Dr. Isha Behl featured in International Society for Optics and Photonics (SPIE) Women in Optics

Published: 19 Mar, 2024

Centre for Radiation and Environmental Science (RESC) and Irish Research Council Research Fellow; Dr. Isha Behl has been featured in the International Society for Optics and Photonics (SPIE) as one of the 'Women in Optics' notebook for 2024.

'SPIE is the international society for optics and photonics and have operated as a not-for-profit since their founding in 1955, connecting, engaging, and serving our global constituency of more than 258,000 people from 184 countries.'

Speaking about being selected, Isha said:

I am delighted to be selected by SPIE as a STEM role model for equity, diversity, and inclusion for women in optics. I have been working in the field of biomedical application of vibrational spectroscopy for early detection of oral cancer since 2009. After completing of master’s in 2010, I was awarded the prestigious Women Scientist Fellowship by the Department of Science and Technology, Government of India.  Further in 2014, I was awarded a Fiosraigh Ph.D. fellowship from TU Dublin, to carry out PhD under the supervision of Prof Fiona Lyng, Prof Hugh Byrne, and Ms Alison Malkin. Recently in 2022, I was awarded a post-doctoral researcher fellowship for a collaborative project by the Irish Research Council, Government of Ireland with Dr Jeff O’Sullivan (TCD), Prof Fiona Lyng, and Prof Hugh Byrne. I am also a collaborator in an SFI-funded project with Prof Fiona Lyng and with Dublin Dental University Hospital. I have dedicated my life to the betterment of cancer patients and would like to continue in that direction in the future. I would also like to empower and motivate women to have a career in STEM.

Commenting on the Women in Optics feature Prof. Fiona Lyng said:

I'm delighted to see my colleague Dr Isha Behl featured as one of the SPIE Women in Optics. Isha has worked on vibrational spectroscopy for early detection of oral cancer over the past 10 years and has made great progress investigating oral potentially malignant lesions using minimally invasive cell and saliva samples in collaboration with our clinical colleagues in the Dublin Dental University Hospital (funded by Science Foundation Ireland) and with Dr Jeff O'Sullivan in the School of Dental Science, TCD (funded by the Irish Research Council).