Another Wavelength: Supriya Roy
In this issue of Another Wavelength, we chat with optical sciences and engineering student Supriya Roy. A member of the Class of 2027, Supriya is pursuing a BS in Optical Sciences and Engineering with a minor in Mathematics. She shares her academic journey and experiences as a student at the Wyant College of Optical Sciences.
This year, you received several prestigious awards (Goldwater, Astronaut, and SPIE Women in Optics). What did this recognition mean to you?
I am honored to have been named a 2026 Barry Goldwater Scholarship in Excellence and Education Foundation Scholar and Astronaut Scholarship Foundation Scholar, and to have been selected as a 2026 SPIE Women in Optics Scholarship recipient. I am grateful for the opportunity to represent the University of Arizona optics community at a national level. These awards will support my ultimate goal of pursuing a research career in biomedical optics.
Can you share a bit about the research or work that contributed to receiving these awards?
In the Biomedical Optics and Optical Measurement Laboratory, I am researching techniques for in vivo and ex vivo diagnostic procedures including microendoscopy and digital pathology under my primary mentor Dr. Travis Sawyer, funded in part by the NASA Space Grant Internship Program. Digital pathology, or the use of computer-based algorithms for image analysis to correlate disease states with tissue morphology, can aid clinicians in identifying pathological features often not discernible to even the trained human eye, and has the potential to be integrated into microendoscopes for faster real-time diagnosis.
In collaboration with the University of Stuttgart Institute for Applied Optics, I designed a tailored 3D-printed microlens array to increase optical transmission through fiber optic endoscopes by 50-70%. I presented the results of my work at the 2026 SPIE Photonics West Conference.
At the University of Cambridge Cavendish Laboratory, I developed an image analysis framework to identify which spatial biomarkers can best differentiate between selected low- and high-risk disease states of esophageal cancer. I am currently expanding my analysis to include an extensive set of available patient data with six total disease states to develop a framework to supplement visual analysis for early esophageal cancer detection. This technique may eventually alleviate the need for staining, reduce the workload for histopathologists, and be integrated into endoscopes to identify cancerous lesions in real-time during diagnostic procedures.
I am also working with Dr. Timothy Secomb on a mathematical model to study the hemodynamic effects of ventricular septal defects (VSDs) of increasing size on systemic and pulmonary circulation in adult and pediatric patients.
Have there been any mentors, faculty members, or peers who have had a significant impact on your journey? How has the OPCSI community supported your growth?
I would like to thank my primary research advisors Dr. Travis Sawyer and Dr. Timothy Secomb for their unwavering support throughout my undergraduate research career. Thank you also to Prof. Dr. Alois Herkommer and Dr. Marco Wende, and Dr. Sarah Bohndiek and Dr. Stephen Mead, for the incredible opportunity to conduct optics research abroad. I am grateful to Dr. R. John Koshel and Ms. Amber Soergel for their support, and to the College of Optical Sciences, the Biomedical Optics and Optical Measurement Laboratory, and my classmates for inspiring my ambitions.
What advice would you give to other students interested in pursuing opportunities like these scholarships?
My greatest advice is to seek out as many opportunities as possible to explore research. Talk to everyone you can and learn about what research programs and scholarships exist and align with your goals. Be patient and stay determined!