Rafael Piestun

Rafael Piestun is a Professor in the Department of Electrical, Computer, and Energy Engineering at the University of Colorado. His research focuses on controlling and processing optical radiation at nanometer and femtosecond scales, exploring applications in sensing, imaging, communications, energy conversion, and computing. Key research areas include super-resolution imaging, photon-efficient techniques, and engineered point spread functions for 3D localization and orientation estimation of single molecules.

His work emphasizes nanoscale optical phenomena and ultrafast temporal dynamics, with applications ranging from biomedical imaging to energy systems. Recent projects include developing SPINDLE for efficient super-resolution imaging and advancing 3D single-molecule tracking using double-helix point spread functions.

Publications appear in journals like NanoLetters, Optics Express, and Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. His research group collaborates on interdisciplinary projects, such as bacterial ultrastructure imaging and light focusing through scattering media. The group’s work is supported by cutting-edge experimental setups and theoretical frameworks in optics and photonics.