Danuta Sampson

2017 OSA Ambassador Danuta Bukowska-Sampson is an early career research fellow currently based at the Lions Eye Institute and the University of Western Australia in Perth, Western Australia. She joined these institutions in 2014, bringing with her expertise in optics, optical microscopy, and image processing. She acquired this expertise during her PhD at the Nicolaus Copernicus University in Torun, Poland, in the Optical Biomedical Imaging Group, a leading group in the field of biomedical imaging.

From 2008 to the completion of her PhD in February 2014, her research concentrated on the development of spectral-domain optical coherence tomography for applications in biology and ophthalmology under the supervision of two of its founders, Professors Andrzej Kowalczyk and Maciej Wojtkowski. Her PhD studies largely concerned the application of spectral-domain optical coherence tomography to blood flow measurement, and she has also contributed to the field of structural and functional imaging of the human retina, including the design of advanced scanning protocols and novel OCT data processing methods. Her postdoctoral position in Australia taken up in October 2014 has presented the opportunity to broaden her knowledge in vision science, gain experience in new diagnostic tools in ophthalmology, and further enhance her skills in image processing methods under the supervision of Dr Fred Chen, MD.

Over the past seven years, Dr Sampson has been an active member of the two main optical societies: The Optical Society (OSA) and The International Optics and Photonics Society (SPIE). She has served as a committee member for international student conferences, reviewed articles submitted for peer-review and accepted invitations to write articles and blogs in the field of science popularization to raise interest in optics amongst young people.

In 2009, she has established the Nicolaus Copernicus University student chapter of the Optical Society and became a chapter president for one year. Since then, she has been involved in many outreach programs aimed at raising general public interest in physics. For example, in 2011, she initiated a national contest called “The Art of Seeing”, which aimed to design optics tools to support education and development of partially sighted children in Poland. This activity was recognized by Educational Outreach OSA and SPIE grants. Her contributions in promoting science were acknowledged by receiving the distinction of “Science Popularizer 2014”, a national Polish prize. This prestigious prize, awarded since 2005 by the Science and Scholarship Foundation and the Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education, recognizes scientists who contribute to popularizing scientific knowledge.

In 2014, after beginning her postdoctoral fellowship, she was asked to join the Western Australian local outreach committee of the UNESCO International Year of Light to help organize events in the local community. In the same year, she initiated the University of Western Australia student chapter of the Optical Society and became the Chapter’s outreach advisor, enabling to continue her passion for raising general public interest in optics. In 2016, she has been a mentor for an Australian senior high school student in the World Biotech Tour program, assisting in a biotechnology research project. Her mentee won the local competition in Perth, Western Australia, for her outstanding research work and will represent Australia at the Science Centre World Summit, Tokyo, Japan in 2017. These achievements have been made possible through the excellent training in leadership and science she received from her mentors and teachers, Professors Andrzej Kowalczyk and Piotr Targowski from the Nicolaus Copernicus University, to whom she is indebted.