Dr. Dan Christensen

Dan Christensen has more than 5 years of hands-on experience designing, aligning, and testing optical systems. His technical experience includes construction of a random-access multiphoton (RAMP) microscope, a proof-of-principle design and test of a stimulated emission depletion (STED) microscope, and ongoing support of traditional two-photon, confocal, and intrinsic optical signaling microscopes. He also has experience working with vacuum systems and designing and testing of a thermal atomic beam oven.

Mr. Christensen has four years experience working as an integral part of a highly diverse environment of biologists, neuroscientists, and surgeons spanning the ranks of tenured professor to undergraduate student. He has learned how to perceive needs, develop solutions, and communicate difficult concepts effectively across discipline lines. The nature of his doctoral research has required this ability, as the project has entailed using RAMP microscopy to investigate the mechanisms of cranial blood flow at the capillary level. Dan has authored or co-authored numerous publications, including peer-reviewed articles, a book chapter, review, and conference proceeding and given both oral and poster presentations at national conferences.

Dan has served on numerous academic, civil, and professional committees. He presently serves on the Engineering, Science, and Technology Policy (ESTeP) and Future Leaders Committees for SPIE, is President of the University of Rochester SPIE student chapter, is a Graduate Community Assistant (GCA) for the University of Rochester student housing, and leads the youth group for his local church congregation.

Dan holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Physics with emphases in Mathematics and Computer Science from Brigham Young University and a Masters in Optics from the University of Rochester. He anticipates receiving his Doctorate in Optics from the University of Rochester in the summer of 2013.