Student
Trey is a first-year PhD student at Duke University studying Biomedical Engineering. He graduated from Duke with an M.S. in BME (2022) and the University of Alabama - Birmingham with a B.S. of BME (2021). With the BIOS lab, he studies facets of mechanotransduction using combined quantitative phase and FRET images to extract uniquely coupled data.
His previous research includes work at Dr. Margaret Liu's UAB Cellular Therapy Lab where he performed a variety of assays under his graduate research advisor.
Apart from academic research Trey enjoys both listening and playing music, film, and his two cats.
Appointments and Affiliations
- Student
Contact Information
- Email Address: robert.highland@duke.edu
Awards, Honors, and Distinctions
- Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellow. Sloan Foundation & National Action Council for Minorities in Engineering, Inc.. 2023
- Dean’s Research Award for Master’s Students. Duke University. 2022
- Research Fellowship for BME MS/MEng Students. Duke University. 2022
Representative Publications
- Miller, D. A., Y. Xu, R. Highland, V. T. Nguyen, W. J. Brown, G. Hong, J. Yao, and A. Wax. “Enhanced penetration depth in optical coherence tomography and photoacoustic microscopy in vivo enabled by absorbing dye molecules.” Optica 12, no. 1 (January 20, 2025): 24–30. https://doi.org/10.1364/OPTICA.546779.
- Highland, Robert E., Albert Rancu, Hillel Price, Steven M. Parker, Meghan Reynolds, Brenton D. Hoffman, and Adam Wax. “Multimodal segmentation of dynamic subcellular features using quantitative phase imaging and FRET-based sensors [Invited].” Journal of the Optical Society of America. A, Optics, Image Science, and Vision 41, no. 11 (November 2024): C38–48. https://doi.org/10.1364/josaa.534440.
- Gupta, Deven K., Robert Highland, David A. Miller, and Adam Wax. “Utilizing quantitative phase microscopy to localize fluorescence in three dimensions via the transport of intensity equation.” Optics Letters 49, no. 15 (August 2024): 4457–60. https://doi.org/10.1364/ol.532991.