UMass Boston

Chandra Yelleswarapu, Graduate Program Director/Associate Professor, Physics

Chandra Yelleswarapu

Department:
Physics
Title:
Graduate Program Director/Associate Professor
Location:
ISC Floor 01 01150
Phone:

Phone: 617.287.6063

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Biography

Dr. Chandra S. Yelleswarapu, Associate Professor at UMass Boston, leads the Experimental Optics Group and specializes in Optics, Photonics, Nonlinear Optics, Photoacoustics, and Quantitative Phase Imaging. He has published over 50 peer-reviewed research papers and holds 4 patents. His research focuses on developing advanced optical and photoacoustic techniques for biomedical imaging, material characterization, and sensing technologies.

Area of Expertise

Research spans multiple interdisciplinary areas at the intersection of nonlinear optics, photoacoustics, plasmonics, and quantitative phase imaging. His key contributions include:

  • Developing user-friendly interfaces for quantitative biological analysis, enhancing accessibility to complex imaging techniques.
  • Investigating reconfigurable third-order nonlinear optical-plasmon coupling for enhancement, optimizing nonlinear optical responses.
  • Developing mobile lensless digital holographic microscopy for disease diagnosis, enabling low-cost, field-portable imaging solutions.
  • Developing handheld photoacoustic sensors, advancing non-invasive diagnostic tools.
  • Exploring the interaction of acoustic waves with liquid crystals, contributing to tunable photonic applications.
  • Designing photoacoustic contrast agents for cancer tumor imaging, improving imaging sensitivity for biomedical applications.

Key achiements:

  • Developed  photoacoustic z-scan (PAZ-scan) technique, a novel fusion of optical z-scan and photoacoustic methods for material characterization.
  • Developed Fourier phase contrast microscope using thermotropic properties of nematic liquid crystals, enabling advanced phase contrast imaging.

Degrees

Ph.D., Optics/Applied Optics - Alabama A&M University 

M.Phi., Physics - University of Hyderabad

Professional Publications & Contributions
  1. Charlotte Kyeremah, Matthew Weiss, Dila R Kandel, Daniel Haehn, and Chandra S Yelleswarapu, “Single-beam digital holographic reconstruction: a phase-support enhanced complex wavefront on phase-only function for twin-image elimination, Journal of Biomedical Optics 29 (7), 076502-076502 (2024).
  2. Shengwei Wang, Edward J Lipchus, Mohamed A Gharbi, and C.S.Yelleswarpau, “Polarization Z-Scan studies revealing plasmon coupling due to dimer formation of gold nanoparticles in nematic liquid crystals,” Micromachines 14 (12), 2206 (2023).
  3. Shengwei Wang, Changshou Fu, Greg Sun, Mohamed A Gharbi, and C.S.Yelleswarpau, “Plasmon enhancement of third-order nonlinear optical absorption of gold nanoparticles dispersed in planar oriented nematic liquid crystals,” Nanotechnology 34 (36), 365205 (2023).
  4. Peter Catsoulis, Shengwei Wang, Chandra S Yelleswarapu, and Jonathan Rochford, “Electronic Characterization of Vis–NIR Absorbing Noninnocent Ruthenium Oxyquinolate–merocyanine Complexes and their Photoacoustic Emission in Aqueous Micellar Solution, Photochemistry and Photobiology 99 (2), 547-561 (2023).
  5. Charlotte Kyeremah, Jeffry La, Mohamed A. Gharbi, and Chandra S. Yelleswarapu, “Exploring different textures of a nematic liquid crystal for quantitative Fourier phase contrast microscopy,” Optics Laser Technology 147, 107631 (2022). 
  6. Maryam Hatamimoslehabadi, Mathieu Frenette, Seema Bag, Gerald E Gilligan, Jeffrey La, Chandra Yelleswarapu, and Jonathan Rochford, “Characterization of Triphenylamine and Ferrocenyl Donor‐‐donor Vinyl‐BODIPY Derivatives as Photoacoustic Contrast Agents,” Photochemistry and Photobiology 98, 62-72 (2022).
  7. Amina Yasin,* Vijayakumar S. Nair,* Mohd Hasbi Ab Rahim, Yoshihisa Yamaoka, Chandra S. Yelleswarapu, and Rajan Jose, “Structural parameters versus third order optical susceptibility of Zinc porphyrin molecules,” J. Mater. Chem. C 9, 17461-17470, (2021). *- equal contribution.
  8. M. Hatamimoslehabadi, M. Frenette, J. La, J. Rochford, and C. Yelleswarapu, "Design and characterization of donor- π-acceptor vinyl- BODIPY derivatives as molecular photoacoustic contrast agents," European Conferences on Biomedical Optics, OSA Technical Digest, paper ETu4D.2 (2021).
  9. Albert Kamanzi, Helena Rudolph, Sumit Agrawal, Sri Rajasekhar Kothapalli, and Chandra S Yelleswarapu, “Measurement of blood oxygen saturation using a single wavelength photoacoustic Z-scan technique,” Asian Journal of Physics 30, 1627-1635 (2021).
  10. Ivan M Kislyakov, Inna M Belousova, SK Evstrop’ev, TD Murav’eva, Chandra S Yelleswarapu, “Nonlinear optical properties of carbon nanoparticles in sol-gel composites studied by optical and photoacoustic Zscan techniques,” Asian Journal of Physics 30, 1647-1652 (2021).
  11. Amina Yasin, Vijayakumar S. Nair, S. Assa Aravindh, Shaheen M. Sarkar, Maryam Hatamimoslehabadi, Somak Mitra, Mohd Hasbi Ab Rahim, Jeffrey La, Iman S. Roqan,  Mashitah M. Yusoff,  Chandra S. Yelleswarapu, and  Rajan Jose, -Zn(ii)porphyrins of tailored functional groups for intensifying the photoacoustic signal,” J. Mater. Chem. C 8, 8546-8559 (2020).
  12. Moreau, M., B. Ziberi, S. Yasmin-Karim, R. Mueller, D. E. Kozono, C. S. Yelleswarapu, and W. Ngwa. "Smart Radiotherapy Biomaterials for Combining Radiotherapy and Immunotherapy With Image-Guided Radiotherapy and Drug Delivery Capability." International Journal of Radiation Oncology, Biology, Physics 108, e372 (2020).
  13. Cristina Rodriguez-Quijada, Helena de Puig, Maria Sánchez-Purrà, Chandra Yelleswarapu, Jason Evans, Jonathan Celli, and Kimberly Hamad-Schifferli, “Protease Degradation of Protein Coronas and Its Impact on Cancer Cells and Drug Payload Release,” ACS Applied Materials and Interface 11, 14588 (2019).
  14.     Raymond E Borg, Maryam Hatamimoslehabadi, Stephanie Bellinger, Jeffrey La, Farha Mithila, Chandra Yelleswarapu, and Jonathan Rochford, “Photophysical and photoacoustic properties of π‐extended curcumin dyes: Effects of the terminal dimethylamino electron‐donor and the bridging aryl ring,” Photochemistry and photobiology 95, 280-292 (2019).
  15. Stephanie Bellinger, Maryam Hatamimoslehabadi, Raymond E Borg, Jeffrey La, Farha Mithila, Peter Catsoulis, Chandra S Yelleswarapu, and Jonathan Rochford, “Characterization of a NIR absorbing thienyl curcumin contrast agent for photoacoustic imaging,” Chemical Communications 54, 6352-6355 (2018).
  16.    Rebecca Ravenelle, Ariel K. Berman, Jeffrey La, Briana Mason, Evans Asumadu, Chandra Yelleswarapu, and Tiffany S. Donaldson, “Sex matters: females in proestrus show greater diazepam anxiolysis and brain‐derived neurotrophin factor‐ and parvalbumin‐positive neurons than males,” European Journal of Neuroscience 47 (8), 994-1002 (2018).
  17. Stephanie Bellinger, Maryam Hatamimoslehabadi, Seema Bag, Farha Mithila, Jeffrey La, Mathieu Frenette, Samir Laoui, David J. Szalda, Chandra Yelleswarapu, and Jonathan Rochford, “Photophysical and photoacoustic properties of quadrupolar borondifluoride curcuminoid dyes,” Chemistry – A European Journal 24 (4), 906-917 (2018).
  18. Vijayakumar S. Nair, Aditya Pusala, Maryam Hatamimoslehabadi, and Chandra S Yelleswarapu, “Impact of carbon nanotube geometrical volume on nonlinear absorption and scattering properties,” Optical Materials 73, 306-311 (2017).
  19. Maryam Hatamimoslehabadi, Stephanie Bellinger, Jeffrey La, Esraa Ahmad, Mathieu Frenette, Chandra Yelleswarapu, and Jonathan Rochford, “Correlation of Photophysical Properties with the Photoacoustic Emission for a Selection of Established Chromophores,” The Journal of Physical Chemistry C 121 (43), 24168-178 (2017).