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Dr. Phillip Hemmer, a researcher in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Division of the Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station (TEES), had a Perspectives paper published in the prestigious research publication Science.

The paper, "Toward Molecular-Scale MRI," can be found online. Hemmer is also a professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Texas A&M University

In his paper Hemmer discusses magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), which is a mainstay of medical diagnostics, allowing nondestructive imaging inside opaque objects with high resolution. There have been many attempts to use MRI to image small objects such as living cells, because the resolution can be well below the optical diffraction limit. However, he says the detection sensitivity of conventional MRI falls rapidly for smaller feature sizes, making it impossible to resolve features smaller than a few micrometers with this method.

In his paper Hemmer discusses different molecular-scale magnetic resonance imaging methods designed for these smaller sizes. These methods are published in the same issue of Science.

Hemmer joined the engineering faculty at Texas A&M in January 2002. He received his bachelor’s degree from the University of Dayton in 1976 and his Ph.D. in physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1984. His interest areas are in solid materials for quantum optics, especially "dark resonance" excitation, materials and techniques for resonant nonlinear optics, phase-conjugate-based turbulence aberration and compensation, spectral hole burning materials and techniques for ultra-dense memories and high temperature operation, quantum computing in solid materials, quantum communication and teleportation in trapped atoms, holographic optical memory materials, smart pixels devices, optical correlators, photorefractive applications, atomic clocks and laser trapping and cooling.

Honors include being elected Fellow of the Optical Society of America, receiving the Ruth and William Neely ’52/Dow Chemical Fellowship, an outstanding faculty award from the electrical and computer engineering department, an NSF fellowship, the Air Force Research Laboratory Chief Scientist’s award and the Air Force Office of Scientific Research Star Team Award three times. He also is a member of the Optical Society of America, S.P.I.E. and American Physical Society.

Founded in 1880 by Thomas Edison, Science has grown to become the world’s leading outlet for scientific news, commentary and cutting-edge research, with the largest paid circulation of any peer-reviewed general-science journal. Through its print and online incarnations, Science reaches an estimated worldwide readership of more than one million. In content, too, the journal is truly international in scope; some 35 to 40 percent of the corresponding authors on its papers are based outside the United States. Its articles consistently rank among world’s most cited research.