Hyunwoo Song, PhD

Postdoctoral Fellow, Johns Hopkins University

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Welcome! I am an ultrasound imaging scientist with deep expertise in ultrasound physics, imaging, and system development. I am currently a postdoctoral fellow at Johns Hopkins University, where I work with Drs. Emad Boctor, Jeeun Kang, and Russell H. Taylor. My research focuses on developing non-contact ultrasound imaging systems for surgical guidance, and photoacoustic retinal prosthesis technology.

I am actively involved in the ARPA-H and SURPASS projects, bridging ultrasound, photoacoustics, and medical robotics to enable precise, functional, and non-contact clinical intervention.

Research Interests

Ultrasound/Photoacoustic imaging and neuromodulation · Model/Learning-based algorithm development · Medical robotics · Physical AI · Machine-learning & AI driven optimization · Real-time ultrasound system development

news

Oct 23, 2026 I received the Translational Innovation Award at the 6th Annual Conference of the Korean Life Scientist Association of Maryland (KLAM) in Baltimore, MD.
Oct 08, 2026 I attended the IEEE International Ultrasonics Symposium (IUS 2026) in Raleigh, NC, where I presented two first-author papers on non-contact ultrasound/photoacoustic surgical guidance and a photoacoustic beacon for surgical safety (T3A), along with five co-authored papers from our group.
May 05, 2026 I got married to Jane Yoo! 🤵🏻👰🏻
Dec 17, 2025 I was invited to give a webinar talk at Korean-American Biomedical Engineering Society (KBMES), titled “Photoacoustic retinal stimulation for visual prosthesis”.
Oct 24, 2025 I was invited to give a talk at Georgia Tech Biomedical Photonics Society (BiPS), titled “Photoacoustic retinal stimulation for visual prosthesis”.
May 27, 2025 Gave a seminar talk “Development of biomedical application using non-contact ultrasound” at Kwangwoon University, South Korea.

selected publications

  1. Arc-to-line registration method for ultrasound and photoacoustic image-guided intraoperative robot-assisted laparoscopic prostatectomy
    Hyunwoo Song, Shuojue Yang, Zijian Wu, Hamid Moradi, Russell H. Taylor, Jin U. Kang, Septimiu E. Salcudean, and Emad M. Boctor
    International Journal of Computer Assisted Radiology and Surgery, 2023
    🏆 Siemens Best Paper Award: Runner-up, IPCAI 2023
    Link to paper
  2. A novel design framework of synthetic radial aperture focusing for volumetric transrectal ultrasound imaging
    Hyunwoo Song, Jeeun Kang, and Emad M. Boctor
    Journal of Computational Design and Engineering, 2022
    Link to paper
  3. Real-time intraoperative surgical guidance system in the da Vinci surgical robot based on transrectal ultrasound/photoacoustic imaging with photoacoustic markers: an ex vivo demonstration
    Hyunwoo Song, Hamid Moradi, Baichuan Jiang, Keshuai Xu, Yixuan Wu, Russell H. Taylor, Anton Deguet, Jin U. Kang, Septimiu E. Salcudean, and Emad M. Boctor
    IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters, 2022
    Link to paper
  4. Remote and dynamically configurable photoacoustic stimulation of retinal ganglion cells for high resolution visual function restoration
    Hyunwoo Song, Thomas Johnson, Alexandra Patterson, Jeeun Kang, Jeongwon Shin, Cindy Berlinicke, Chad Weiler, Keshuai Xu, David Shrekenhamer, James B. Spicer, Seth Billings, Donald J. Zack, and Emad M. Boctor
    In ARVO 2025 Annual Meeting, Salt Lake City, Utah, USA, May 2025
  5. Towards visual function restoration through photoacoustic stimulation
    Hyunwoo Song, Alexandra Patterson, Jeeun Kang, Jie Cheng, Casey Keuthan, Cindy Berlinicke, Chad Weiler, Keshuai Xu, Nora Lane, David Shrekenhamer, Peter Gehlbach, James B. Spicer, Seth Billings, Donald J. Zack, and Emad M. Boctor
    In ARVO 2024 Annual Meeting, Seattle, Washington, USA, May 2024
    🏆 Robertson Translational Research Grant