Bernd Fischer Award 2015

The Bernd Fischer Award 2015 for an outstanding PhD thesis in the Departments of Computer Science or Natural Sciences is awarded to Dr. rer. nat. Dierck Hillmann for his dissertation on "Holoscopy” at the Institute of Biomedical Optics, supervised by Prof. Dr. Alfred Vogel.

The project`s aim was to combine the imaging techniques of optical coherence tomography (OCT) and digital holography in order to exploit the advantages of both techniques. The Luebeck researchers have named the result "holoscopy". Similar to OCT, this involves sending light of different wavelengths into tissue. The images of the backscattered light are used to calculate exactly where the scattering occurs. This provides a 3D volume of the interior of the objects being examined. With the results from the work, lenses and other optical components can be dispensed with. They are replaced, as in digital holography, by calculations in the computer. This bypasses limitations of the lenses used, for example, and yields sharper volumes that are focused everywhere, as well as overall more efficient and faster imaging.
The work was and is being continued, including in a project with federal funding from BMBF. Currently, the researchers can record volumes of the retina at record speed using similar technology and a fast camera and, for example, correct disturbing image defects of the eye (defective vision) during the measurements.

Dr. Dierck Hillmann, born in Hoya/Weser in 1983, studied physics from 2002 - 2007, first for two semesters in distance learning at the University of Kaiserslautern and then in attendance studies at the University of Bonn, graduating with a degree in physics. Since 2008 he has been in Luebeck at Thorlabs GmbH, 2010 - 2012 he completed his doctoral thesis at the Institute for Biomedical Optics (Director: Prof. Dr. rer. nat. Alfred Vogel) and in cooperation with the university`s Medical Laser Center and Thorlabs. Supervisor was Priv.-Doz. Dr. rer. nat. Gereon Hüttmann, who also held the laudatory speech.

The University Award for STEM dissertations has been presented since 2007 and was renamed as Bernd Fischer Award in 2016 to commemorate the mathematician Prof. Dr. Bernd Fischer (1957-2013). As the Head of the Institute of Mathematics and Image Computing and the Fraunhofer Project Group on Image Registration (MEVIS) Professor Fischer played a major role in establishing the field of computer science at the University of Luebeck and, as a scientist as well as a lecturer, he was extremely committed and popular for his achievements, his excellent teaching and his work on behalf of the university.