Associate Professor of Engineering Practice
Director of Medical Device & Diagnostic Engineering Program
Biomedical photonics, clinical lasers, measurement and modeling of cardiorespiratory activity.
Office: DRB 150
Phone: (213) 740-0346
Fax: (213) 740-0343
Email:
jmaarek@bmsr.usc.edu
Dr. Maarek is associated with the
Alfred E. Mann Institute for Biomedical Engineering (AMI-USC) lab.
Background
Jean-Michel I. Maarek received his engineering degree (Diplome d'Ingénieur Civil des Mines) in Chemical Engineering in 1980 from the Ecole des Mines in Nancy, France, his Doctorat Ingénieur in Biomedical Engineering in 1984 from the Université Paris Val-de-Marne in Créteil, France, and his M.S. degree in Education in 1997 from the University of Southern California. Prior to coming to North America, he worked in Creteil Medical School on the optical properties of biological tissues and the development of a functional imaging technique using near-infrared laser sources. Dr. Maarek came to USC in 1984 as a Research Associate. He was appointed Research Assistant Professor in 1987 and Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering in 1993.
Research
Dr. Maarek worked for several years on the biomechanics of the pulmonary circulation. His primary interest is in biomedical optics applied to the development of diagnostic technology (optical biopsy) for critical care medicine and cardiopulmonary studies. His present research deals mainly with laser-induced fluorescence spectroscopy applied to the identification and characterization of atherosclerotic lesions. Spectral and temporal characteristics of the fluorescent light generated by artery tissue excited with nanosecond laser pulses are analyzed to identify compounds present in healthy and diseased arteries. In another biomedical optics project, near-infrared laser spectroscopy is used to characterize oxygen supply and utilization in body tissues. Dr. Maarek is also interested in Engineering Education, especially in relation to improvement of teaching and learning and to the use of information technology in the undergraduate classroom.
