Adelphi Physics Professor Wins $242k NSF Grant to Push Boundaries of Image Resolution

The National Science Foundation has awarded an Adelphi University physics professor a grant to research the limits of image resolution.

With this funding, totaling $242,300, Kevin Liang, PhD, assistant professor of physics at Adelphi, will conduct research with implications for how we see everything from outer space to microscopic particles.

Dr. Liang's project, "LEAPS-MPS: Developing Novel Imaging Techniques and Limits with Fisher Information-based or Quantum-Inspired Superresolution," deals with the concept of resolution, which is the term used to describe how well an imaging system (such as a camera, telescope or microscope) can image small details on a given scene. Dr. Liang's work will study a specific type of proposed superresolution, in which the design of the imaging system includes aspects that traditional systems would have considered to be detrimental to image quality.

"In conventional systems, there is a strict limit to the resolution," said Dr. Liang. "It turns out that the inclusion of these 'worse' aspects can actually give rise to better resolution. With this NSF grant funding, my team of undergraduate students and I will analyze the feasibility of this idea, while also exploring other superresolution ideas."

A benchmark test for this would be to assess the minimum distance between two point sources (like stars) that can be discerned by the imaging system. From there, numerical simulations can be performed for the more complicated tasks of reconstructing arbitrary object scenes (like a full constellation of stars or an intracellular structure). Dr. Liang will begin work on the project this fall with the help of an undergraduate student. Through the grant, Dr. Liang will be able to add two additional students to the research team by the summer of 2026.

Dr. Liang, who earned his PhD from The Institute of Optics at the University of Rochester, focuses his research on the broad field of theoretical/mathematical optics: Such topics have ranged from providing manufacturing tolerances for free-form mirrors and lenses to studying mechanically stressed optical devices for the purposes of performing quantum random walks. For the past two years, he led Adelphi's student teams selected to compete in Phase 2 of NASA's Innovation and Tech Transfer Idea Competition, which took them to the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, to present projects representing new and innovative solutions using NASA intellectual property.