Yunchan Hwang Optical Coherence Tomography · Retinal Imaging
PhD candidate, MIT EECS — Fujimoto Lab
I'm a PhD candidate at MIT working with Prof. Jim Fujimoto on advancing non-invasive ocular imaging to prevent blindness.
My research develops high-speed OCT angiography to quantify retinal and choroidal hemodynamics, and high-resolution OCT to capture structural changes in the retina. I apply these tools to the leading causes of vision loss across the lifespan — age-related macular degeneration in the elderly, diabetic retinopathy in working-age adults, and inherited retinal diseases in the young.
I am particularly interested in identifying early biomarkers in diabetes prior to clinical retinopathy, with longer-term interest in the eye as a window into neurodegenerative disease.
I'll be defending my PhD in July 2026 and continuing as a postdoctoral researcher in the Fujimoto Lab while applying for faculty positions.
News
- Jul 2026 newAttending the Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting in Lindau, Germany.
- May 2026 Invited talk at the Center for Biomedical OCT Research, Massachusetts General Hospital.
- May 2026 Three oral presentations at ARVO Annual Meeting and ARVO Imaging in the Eye, New Orleans.
- Feb 2026 First-author paper on choriocapillaris flow speed impairment in AMD published in Ophthalmology Science.
- Feb 2026 Awarded the IntRIS Best Member-in-Training Abstract Award and the ARVO Gerhard Zinser Memorial Travel Grant.
- Aug 2025 Awarded the MIT HEALS Graduate Fellowship.