Prof. Virginijus Barzda | Principal Investigator
Prof. Barzda is a Full Professor in the Department of Chemical and Physical Sciences at the University of Toronto, Mississauga campus, and in the Department of Physics, University of Toronto. His research includes the development of novel imaging modalities for nonlinear optical microscopy. He developed a wide range of microscopy techniques that employ second-harmonic generation (SHG), third-harmonic generation (THG) and multiphoton excitation fluorescence image contrast for non-invasive label-free imaging of biological structures, live cells, and subcellular organelles. He focuses on the ultrastructural characterization of biological tissues with nonlinear polarimetric microscopy methods. The ultrastructural imaging is applied to study the organization of collagen in cancer tissue and to investigate contractility mechanisms in cardiac and skeletal muscles.
Dr. Serguei Krouglov | Research Associate
Serguei obtained his Ph.D. from the Institute of Physics Academy of Sciences of Belarus (Minsk), where he worked as a Research Associate for ten years. He was a visiting Professor for Quantum Field Theory at Nankai University (China) and Professor at Belarus University (Minsk) before moving to Toronto as a researcher and teacher at International Educational Centre Toronto. He joined University of Toronto as a sessional lecturer and since 2014 he has been a Research Associate working with Prof. Barzda.
Jiaye Ding | PhD Candidate
Jiaye obtained his BSc at University College London (England) majoring in Physics and later completed his MSc at Imperial College London (England) in Physics with Quantum Dynamics. He joined the Barzda Lab in Fall 2023 as a PhD student where he will be using Reduced Double Stokes Mueller Polarimetry to quantify detailed structures inside crystals of complicated symmetries. Additionally, he will be constructing a microscope to see how quantum mechanical excitation/measurements will reveal more information about the sample's ultrastructure.
Amber Boodhram | MSc Student
Amber obtained her HBSc specializing in Biophysics with a minor in Biology from UTM in 2024. She joined the Barzda Lab in Summer 2023 as a ROP (PHY399) student, where she studied P-SHG measurements in cancer histology samples. Afterwards, she completed her Honour’s Thesis (CPS489), evaluating the wavelength dependency of P-SHG measurements, and undertook a Summer Project investigating the ultrastructural properties of Duchenne muscular dystrophy fibres. Currently, Amber is a MSc student since Fall 2025.
Samuel Squires | MSc Student
Samuel will be graduating from UTM in 2025 with a HBSc specializing in Biophysics. He joined the Barzda lab for his Honour’s Thesis (Fall 2024), studying P-SHG and MPEF measurements in various histological stains in blood vessel samples. Currently, Samuel is a MSc student since Fall 2025.
Eren Aday | CPS489 (Thesis) Student
Eren is entering his fourth year of studies at UTM specializing in Biophysics. He joined the Barzda Lab in Summer 2025 as an NSERC USRA student and is working on building the SRS (Stimulated Raman Scattering) microscope, which has many applications ranging from material science to disease diagnosis.
Semoore Tijani | PHY399 (ROP) Student
Kathy Li | PHY399 (ROP) Student
Last Updated: Nov 17, 2025