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Biography
Amanda Wright graduated from the University of Manchester in 2000 with a 2:1 (Hons) MPhys in Physics, from here she joined the Laser Photonics Group also at the University of Manchester and studied for her PhD in Optical Trapping. In 2004 she was award her PhD on the measuring and characterising optical trapping forces.
Amanda took up Research Associate post at the University of Strathclyde in 2004, joining the Institute of Photonics and the Applications Team. She initially worked on a Basic Technology project looking at multiphoton imaging deep into tissue samples in collaboration with the Grays Cancer Institute and Oxford University and then an EPSRC funded project on the Abraham and Minkowski dilemma relating to the momentum of a photon inside a dielectric material in collaboration with Glasgow University. In 2006 she was promoted to Associate Team Leader of the Applications Team.
Whilst at the Institute of Photonics Amanda was awarded a 5-year Royal Academy of Engineering / EPSRC personal research fellowship titled 'New Horizons in Adaptive Optics for Life Science Research: Adaptive Microscopy' aimed at improving image quality and resolution in optical sectioning microscopes using a technique known as adaptive optics.
In December 2012 Amanda transferred her fellowship to the University of Nottingham and became a member of IBIOS (Institute for Biophysics, Imaging and Optical Science). Here she aims to use her knowledge of Optics and specifically Optical Trapping and Adaptive Optics to engage in collaborative projects working closely with colleagues in the School of Life Sciences.
Amanda is a member of the Optics and Photonics research group.
Expertise Summary
Amanda's main areas of expertise are in Optical Trapping and Adaptive Optics.
Optical trapping involves using a laser beam and a high numerical aperture microscope objective lens to trap, manipulate and control micron sized objects in three dimensions. It has been around since the early 1980s and has found application across the Science and Engineering disciplines. Amanda's particular interest is in Life Science applications of Optical Trapping and she has worked on a number of projects from studying the micro-rheology of the vitreous humor to aid the development of more effective drug delivery systems to measuring the interaction forces between individual cells of the immune system.
Adaptive Optics was original developed for Optical Astronomy to overcome the aberrations caused by the earth's atmosphere and to improve the quality of images. Amanda specializes in transferring this technology to non-linear microscopy systems where image resolution and quality are known to greatly deteriorate with imaging depth. So far Amanda has successfully installed Adaptive Optics systems in confocal, multiphoton, CARS and second harmonic microscopes and more recently combined her knowledge of Adaptive Optics and Optical Trapping to create a system with a constant trapping force deep into a sample.
This work has been supported by the Royal Academy of Engineering, EPSRC, EU, Royal Society and Allergan.