Valery V. Tuchin was born February 4, 1944.

He received his degrees MS in Radiophysics and

Electronics (1966), Candidate of Sciences in

Optics (PhD, 1973), and Doctor of Science in

Quantum Radiophysics (1982) from Saratov

State University, Saratov, Russia. He is a

Professor and holds the Optics and Biomedical

Physics Chair, and he is a director of Research-Educational Institute of Optics and Biophotonics

at Saratov State University. Prof. Tuchin also

heads the Laboratory of Laser Diagnostics of Technical and Living Systems

of Precision Mechanics and Control In stitute, Russian Academy of Sciences.

He was dean of the Faculty of Physics of Saratov University from 1982 to

1989.

His research interests include biomedical optics, biophotonics and laser

medicine, nonlinear dynamics of laser and biophysical systems, physics of

optical and laser measurements. He has authored more than 300 peer-reviewed papers and books, including his latest, Handbook of Optical

Biomedical Diagnostics (SPIE Press, Vol. PM107, 2002; Translation to

Russian, Fizmatlit, Moscow, 2007), Coherent-Domain Optical Methods for

Biomedical Diagnostics, Environmental and Material Science (Kluwer

Academic Publishers, Boston, USA, vol. 1 & 2, 2004), Optical Clearing of

Tissues and Blood (SPIE Press, Vol. PM 154, 2005), and Optical

Polarization in Biomedical Applications , Springer, 2006 (Lihong Wang, and

Dmitry Zimnyakov – co-authors). He is a holder of more than 25 patents.

Prof. Tuchin currently teaches courses on optics, tissue optics, laser and

fiber optics in biomedicine, optical measurements in biomedicine, laser

dynamics, biophysics and medical physics for undergraduate and

postgraduate students. Since 1992, Prof . Tuchin has been the instructor of

SPIE and OSA short courses on biomedical optics for an international

audience of engineers, students and medical doctors; and he is an editorial

board member of J. of Biomedical Optics (SPIE), Lasers in the Life Sciences ,

J. of X-Ray Science and Technology, J. of Biophotonics, J. on Biomedical

Photonics (China), and the Russian journals Izvestiya VUZ, Applied

Nonlinear Dynamics, Quantum Electronics and Laser Medicine. He is a

member of the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences and the International

Academy of Informatization, a member of the board of SPIE/RUS and a

fellow of SPIE. He has been awar ded the title and scholarship “Soros

Professor” (1997–1999), and the Russian Federation Scholarship for the

outstanding scientists (1994–2003); and Honored Science Worker of the

Russian Federation (since 2000). Since 2005 Prof. Tuchin is a vice-president

of Russian Photobiology Society. In 2007 he has been awarded by SPIE

Educator Award.