Parsin Haji Reza

Professor Parsin Haji Reza (Ph.D. and P. Eng.) is an award-winning teacher, researcher, entrepreneur, published novelist, and the inventor of photoacoustic remote sensing (PARS®) microscopy. He is a founder of illumiSonics Inc., where he held the position of CEO from 2014 to 2018; he remains the CTO and Chairman of the Board, where he leads all scientific research and technology development and oversees major company decisions and policies. illumiSonics under Dr. Haji Reza's leadership raised private investments (+$9M) and attracted notable individuals and international companies. Dr. Haji Reza Joined the University of Waterloo in April 2018 as an assistant professor in biomedical engineering. He received the Faculty of Engineering Distinguished Performance Award (2020), Engineering Research Excellence Award (2021) and Outstanding Performance Award (2022). In 2021, for the work he has done to support the mental health of the students, he received the Engineering Society Friend of Natalie Award.

He has established PhotoMedicine Labs at the University of Waterloo (2019), which has attracted, trained, and retained top biomedical engineering students from across Canada and internationally. PhotoMedicine Labs is funded by industry collaborators and top granting agencies in Canada (e.g., New Frontiers Exploration grant) and has garnered ~$4.6 M in its first four years (with ~1M expected annually in the next five years). Dr. Reza ‘s current research focuses on developing the first real-time cancer surgical microscope to enable immediate tissue biopsy and full tumour resection during surgery, as well as the first clinical ophthalmic imaging tool capable of pre-diagnosing eye-blinding diseases before they become symptomatic (this is not currently possible). Since 2019, the lab has published numerous high-impact peer-reviewed articles, reporting breakthroughs in histological, oncological, ophthalmological and endoscopic imaging that could revolutionize the way the world looks at tissues.

In general, Dr. Haji Reza and his team are interested in designing and developing novel hardware and software methods for clinical and pre-clinical biomedical applications. These new technologies aim to provide clinicians and researchers with novel capabilities and information that is presently difficult to obtain with existing techniques. He invented and pioneered several new technologies/concepts including, Photoacoustic Remote Sensing (PARS®) microscopy, a novel absorption-based, non-contact, non-invasive, label-free imaging technique.

Dr. Haji Reza and his team continually strive to maintain an extremely dynamic, respectful, intellectual, fun, and creative environment. The team is working on cutting-edge research in biomedical engineering and biophotonics, including non-invasive non-contact optical imaging methods, micro-endoscopy designs, handheld, and portable medical imaging techniques, design, and fabrication of nano-structured sensors, image processing, Machine Learning methods, Capacitive micromachined ultrasonic transducers, and novel deep optical imaging tomography methods. The team pursues applications in ophthalmology, oncology, dermatology, neurology, cardiology, dentistry, pharmaceutical, and pre-clinical research.

The research philosophy of PhotoMedicine labs is transitional research from bench to the bedside. We are always looking to collaborate with talented students, faculties, researchers, clinicians, and industry.

• Medical imaging
• Image processing
• Machine learning
• Medical devices
• Nano-fabrication
• Photoacoustic remote sensing (PARS) microscopy
• Capacitive micromachined ultrasonic transducer (CMUT)
• Multi-scale functional and molecular photoacoustic tomography
• Ultrasound imaging
• All optical and non-contact detection systems
• Photoacoustic wavefront shaping
• Optical coherence tomography (OCT)
• Multi-photon microscopy
• Novel multi-modality optical imaging techniques
• Design and fabrication of micro-endoscopy systems
• Super-resolution imaging techniques
• Real-time and 3D biomedical imaging
• Novel optical and fiber-based components
• Novel laser systems for biomedical applications
• Optical sensors
• Biomedical Engineering
• Optics
• Photonics

• 2015, Doctorate, Biomedical Engineering, University of Alberta
• 2010, Bachelor's, (Honors) Electronics Majoring in Optical Engineering, Multimedia University

• BME 302 - Seminar
  • Taught in 2019
• BME 364 - Eng. Biomedical Economics
  • Taught in 2019
• BME 386 - The Physics of Medical Imaging
  • Taught in 2020
• BME 393 - Digital Systems
  • Taught in 2019, 2020, 2021

• Zohreh Hosseinaee, Nicholas Pellegrino, Nima Abbasi, Tara Amiri, James A. Tummon Simmons, Paul Fieguth, and Parsin Haji Reza, In-vivo functional and structural retinal imaging using multiwavelength photoacoustic remote sensing microscopy, Scientific Reports, 12(4562), 2022, 1 - 10
  Link
• Kevan Bell, Lyazzat Mukhangaliyeva, Layla Khalili, and Parsin Haji Reza, Hyperspectral absorption microscopy using photoacoustic remote sensing, Optics Express, 29(11), 2021, 24338 - 24348
  Link
• Z. Hosseinaee, B. R. Ecclestone, N. Pellegrino, L. Khalili, L. Mukhangaliyeva, P. Fieguth, P. HajiReza, Functional photoacoustic remote sensing microscopy using a stabilized temperature-regulated stimulated Raman scattering light source, Optics Express, 29(19), 2021, 29745 - 29754
  Link
• Zohreh Hosseinaee, Nima Abbasi, Nicholas Pellegrino, Layla Khalili, Lyazzat Mukhangaliyeva, and Parsin Haji Reza, Functional and structural ophthalmic imaging using noncontact multimodal photoacoustic remote sensing microscopy and optical coherence tomography, Scientific Reports, 11(11466), 2021
• John Mackey, Benjamin R, Ecclestone, Deepak Dinakaran, Gilbert Bigras, Parsin Haji Reza, H&E-like histology of unstained fresh and formalin fixed breast tissue with Photo Acoustic Remote Sensing (PARS) microscopy, Journal of Medical Oncology, 39(15), 2021
• Benjamin R. Ecclestone, Zohreh Hosseinaee, Nima Abbasi, Kevan Bell, Deepak Dinakaran, John R. Mackey & Parsin Haji Reza, Three-dimensional virtual histology in unprocessed resected tissues with photoacoustic remote sensing (PARS) microscopy and optical coherence tomography (OCT), Scientific Reports, 11(13723), 2021, 1 - 13
  Link
• Benjamin R. Ecclestone, Deepak Dinakaran, Parsin Haji Reza, Single Acquisition Label-free Histology-like Imaging with Dual Contrast Photoacoustic Remote Sensing Microscopy, Journal of Biomedical Optics, 26(5), 2021
• Benjamin R. Ecclestone, Saad Abbasi, Kevan Bell, Deepak Dinakaran, Gilbert Bigras, John R. Mackey, Parsin Haji Reza, Towards virtual biopsies of gastrointestinal tissues using photoacoustic remote sensing microscopy, QMIS, 11(3), 2021, 1070 - 1077
• Zohreh Hosseinaee, James A. Tummon Simmons, Parsin Haji Reza, Dual-modal photoacoustic imaging and optical coherence tomography [Review], Frontiers in Physics, 2021
• Benjamin R. Ecclestone, Kevan Bell, Saad Abbasi, Deepak Dinakaran, Muba Taher, John R. Mackey, and Parsin Haji Reza, Histopathology for Mohs micrographic surgery with photoacoustic remote sensing microscopy, Biomed. Opt. Express, 12(1), 2021, 654 - 665
• Saad Abbasi, Kevan Bell, Benjamin Ecclestone and Parsin Haji Reza, Live feedback and 3D photoacoustic remote sensing, QMIS, 11(13), 2021, 1033 - 1045
• Saad Abbasi, Deepak Dinakaran, Gilbert Bigras, John R. Mackey, and Parsin Haji Reza, All-optical label-free human breast tissue block histology using photoacoustic remote sensing, Opt. Lett, 45(17), 2020, 4770 - 4773
• Zohreh Hosseinaee, Layla Khalili, James A. Tummon Simmons, Kevan Bell, and Parsin Haji Reza, Label-free, non-contact, in vivo ophthalmic imaging using photoacoustic remote sensing microscopy, Opt. Lett, 45(22), 2020, 6254 - 6257
• Zohreh Hosseinaee, Martin Le, Kevan Bell, and Parsin HajiReza, Towards non-contact photoacoustic imaging [review], Photoacoustics, 20(100207), 2020, 1 - 16
• Benjamin R. Ecclestone, Kevan Bell, Saad Abbasi, Deepak Dinakaran, Frank K. H. van Landeghem, John R. Mackey, Paul Fieguth & Parsin Haji Reza, Improving maximal safe brain tumor resection with photoacoustic remote sensing microscopy, Scientific Reports, 10(17211), 2020, 1 - 7
• Kevan Bell and Parsin Haji Reza, Non-contact reflection-mode optical absorption spectroscopy using photoacoustic remote sensing,, Opt. Lett, 45(13), 2020, 3427 - 3430
• Kevan Bell, Saad Abbasi, Deepak Dinakaran, Muba Taher, Gilbert Bigras, Frank K. H. van Landeghem, John R. Mackey & Parsin Haji Reza, Reflection-mode virtual histology using photoacoustic remote sensing microscopy Download PDF, Scientific Reports, 10(19121), 2020, 1 - 13
• Saad Abbasi, Kevan Bell, and Parsin Haji Reza, Rapid High-Resolution Mosaic Acquisition for Photoacoustic Remote Sensing, Sensors, 20(1027), 2020, 1 - 11
  Link
• Saad Abbasi*, Martin Le*, Bazil Sonier*, Deepak Dinakaran, Gilbert Bigras, Kevan Bell*, John R. Mackey, Parsin Haji Reza, All-optical Reflection-mode Microscopic Histology of Unstained Human Tissues, Scientific Reports 1, 9(1), 2019, 1 - 11
• Saad Abbasi*, Martin Le*, Bazil Sonier*, Kevan Bell*, Deepak Dinakaran, Gilbert Bigras, John R. Mackey, Parsin Haji Reza, Chromophore selective multi-wavelength photoacoustic remote sensing of unstained human tissues, Biomedical Optics Express, 11, 2019
• Bell, Kevan and Hajireza, Parsin and Zemp, Roger, Scattering cross-sectional modulation in photoacoustic remote sensing microscopy, Optics letters, 43(1), 2018, 146 - 149
• Parsin Haji Reza, Kevan Bell, Wei Shi, James Shapiro, and Roger Zemp, Deep non-contact photoacoustic initial pressure imaging, Optica, 5(6), 2018
• Kevan L. Bell, Parsin Haji Reza, and Roger J. Zemp, ", Coherence-gated photoacoustic remote sensing microscopy, Opt. Express 26, 23689-23704 (2018), 2018
• Hajireza, Parsin and Shi, Wei and Bell, Kevan and Paproski, Robert J and Zemp, Roger J, Non-interferometric photoacoustic remote sensing microscopy, Light: Science & Applications, 6(6), 2017
• Bell, Kevan L and Hajireza, Parsin and Shi, Wei and Zemp, Roger J, Temporal evolution of low-coherence reflectrometry signals in photoacoustic remote sensing microscopy, Applied optics, 56(18), 2017, 5172 - 5181
• Hajireza, Parsin and Sorge, Jason and Brett, Michael and Zemp, Roger, In vivo optical resolution photoacoustic microscopy using glancing angle-deposited nanostructured Fabry--Perot etalons, Optics letters, 40(7), 2015, 1350 - 1353
• Hajireza, Parsin and Forbrich, Alexander and Zemp, Roger, In-vivo functional optical-resolution photoacoustic microscopy with stimulated Raman scattering fiber-laser source, Biomedical optics express, 5(2), 2014, 539 - 546
• Hajireza, Parsin and Krause, Kathleen and Brett, Michael and Zemp, Roger, Glancing angle deposited nanostructured film Fabry-Perot etalons for optical detection of ultrasound, Optics express, 21(5), 2013, 6391 - 6400
• Hajireza, Parsin and Shi, Wei and Zemp, Roger, Label-free in vivo GRIN-lens optical resolution photoacoustic micro-endoscopy, Laser Physics Letters, 10(5), 2013
• Hajireza, Parsin and Forbrich, Alexander and Zemp, Roger J, Multifocus optical-resolution photoacoustic microscopy using stimulated Raman scattering and chromatic aberration, Optics letters, 38(15), 2013, 2711 - 2713
• Hajireza, Parsin and Harrison, Tyler J and Forbrich, Alexander and Zemp, Roger J, Optical resolution photoacoustic microendoscopy with ultrasound-guided insertion and array system detection, Journal of Biomedical Optics, 18(9), 2013
• Shi, Wei and Shao, Peng and Hajireza, Parsin and Forbrich, Alexander and Zemp, Roger J, In vivo dynamic process imaging using real-time optical-resolution photoacoustic microscopy, Journal of biomedical optics, 18(2), 2013
• Shao, Peng and Shi, Wei and Reza, Parsin Haji and Zemp, Roger J, Integrated micro-endoscopy system for simultaneous fluorescence and optical-resolution photoacoustic imaging, Journal of Biomedical Optics, 17(7), 2012
• Shi, Wei and Hajireza, Parsin and Shao, Peng and Forbrich, Alexander and Zemp, Roger J, In vivo near-realtime volumetric optical-resolution photoacoustic microscopy using a high-repetition-rate nanosecond fiber-laser, Optics express, 19(18), 2011, 17143 - 17150
• Hajireza, P and Shi, W and Zemp, RJ, Label-free in vivo fiber-based optical-resolution photoacoustic microscopy, Optics letters, 36(20), 2011, 4107 - 4109
• Hajireza, Parsin and Shi, Wei and Zemp, Roger J, Real-time handheld optical-resolution photoacoustic microscopy, Optics express, 19(21), 2011, 20097 - 20102
• Hajireza, P and Emami, SD and Abbasizargaleh, S and Harun, SW and Kumar, D and Abdul-Rashid, HA, Application of macro-bending for flat and broad gain EDFA, Journal of Modern Optics, 57(16), 2010, 1534 - 1541
• Emami, SD and Hajireza, P and Abd-Rahman, F and Abdul-Rashid, HA and Ahmad, H and Harun, SW, Application of high concentration thulium-doped fiber for achieving S-band gain flattened hybrid optical amplifier, Journal of Optoelectronics and Advanced Materials, 12(7), 2010
• Hajireza, P and Emami, SD and Cham, CL and Kumar, D and Harun, SW and Abdul-Rashid, HA, Linear all-fiber temperature sensor based on macro-bent erbium doped fiber, Laser Physics letters, 7(10), 2010
• Hajireza, Parsin and Emami, Siamak Dawazdah and Abbasizargaleh, Soroush and Harun, Sulaiman Wadi and Kumar, Deepak and Abdul-Rashid, Hairul Azhar, Temperature insensitive broad and flat gain C-band EDFA based on macro-bending, Progress in Electromagnetics Research, 15, 2010, 37 - 48
• Emami, Siamak Dawazdah and Hajireza, Parsin and Abd-Rahman, Faidz and Abdul-Rashid, Hairul Azhar and Ahmad, Harith and Harun, Sulaiman Wadi, Wide-band hybrid amplifier operating in S-band region, Progress In Electromagnetics Research, 102, 2010, 301 - 313
• Hajireza, P and Emami, SD and Abbasizargaleh, S and Harun, SW and Abdul-Rashid, HA, Optimization of gain flattened C-band EDFA using macro-bending, Laser Physics, 20(6), 2010, 1433 - 1437
• Parsin Haji Reza, Photoacoustic Remote Sensing, 06 , Munich, Germnay.

• Touchless technology could enable early detection and treatment of eye diseases that cause blindness
• Engineering research bids win New Frontiers funding

• Currently considering applications from graduate students. A completed online application is required for admission; start the application process now.
• Has Approved Doctoral Dissertation Supervisor (ADDS) status