Atam P. Dhawan, Ph.D., Senior Vice Provost for Research

Atam P. Dhawan, Ph.D.,  is Senior Vice Provost for Research, Executive Director of the Center for Translational Research, Executive Director of Undergraduate Research and Innovation (URI) and Distinguished Professor of Electrical & Computer Engineering at NJIT.  

He obtained his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee, and Ph.D. from the University of Manitoba, all in Electrical Engineering. From 1985-2000, he held faculty positions in Electrical & Computer Engineering and Radiology departments at University of Houston, University of Cincinnati, University of Texas, University of Texas Medical Center (Dallas).  From 2000-2014, he served as the Chair of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, and Associate and Interim Dean of Albert Dorman Honors College.

Dr. Dhawan is an elected Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors (NAI), Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineering (IEEE), Fellow of the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE), and Fellow of the International Academy of Medical and Biological Engineering (IFMBE) for his contributions in medical imaging and image analysis, and healthcare innovations.

Dr. Dhawan serves on the NAI Board of Directors, NJII Board of Directors, R&D Council of NJ Board of Directors and NJACTS Advisory Board.

He has published over 215 research papers and book chapters. He has also authored and co-authored several books in medical imaging, and image analysis. He holds several patents, three of which have been commercialized or licensed.

Dr. Dhawan pioneered low-angle trans-illumination technology and first demonstrated its application in skin-cancer imaging and specifically diagnostic screening of skin-cancers in 1984. His invention, patented as Nevoscope, established the feasibility of point-of-care (POC) in-situ diagnostic evaluation of skin-lesions, creating the field of dermatoscopy for effective early detection of skin-cancers. His optical imaging cornerstone technology led to two successful medical companies (Translite and 3GEN) for manufacturing and marketing of Veinlite and Dermlite devices, which respectively are being used in the interventional treatment of spider-vein diseases and early diagnosis and clinical management of skin-cancers, specifically malignant melanomas.  

Dr. Dhawan chairs the NIH Point-of-Care Technology Research Network (POCTRN) Independent Expert Board.  He is a recipient of numerous awards including Martin Epstein Award (1984), NIH FIRST Award (1988), Sigma-Xi Young Investigator Award (1992), IEEE EMBS Early Career Achievement Award (1995), Doermann Distinguished Lecture Award (1999), EMBS Distinguished Lecturer award (2012-2013) and IEEE EMBS William J. Morlock Award in Excellence in Biomedical Technology (2021).

He served as the Conference Chair of the IEEE 28th International Conference of Engineering in Medicine and Biology (EMB) Society  (2006) and conference co-chair IEEE 42nd International Conference of Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (2020). He has organized and chaired the NIH-IEEE-EMBS International Conferences on Point- of-Care Technologies and Healthcare Innovation in Bangalore, India (2013), and in Seattle (2014), co-chaired the NIH- IEEE Strategic Conference on Point-of-Care Technologies for Precision Medicine in Bethesda (2015), co-chaired IEEE-NIH Conference on Healthcare Innovation and Point-of-Care Technologies in Cancun (2016) and co-chaired 2017 IEEE-NIH Special Topics Conference on Healthcare Innovation and Point-of-Care Technologies in Bethesda. Recently, he served as the co-chair of the NIH Research and Innovation Translation Partnerships in Point-of-Care Technologies Conference and Technology Showcase (2023).  

Dr. Dhawan served as the founding Editor-In-Chief of the IEEE Journal of Translational Engineering in Health and Medicine (2012-2018), and the founding chair of the IEEE EMBS technical committee on Translational Engineering and Healthcare Innovations (2014-2018). He also served as the Senior Editor of the IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering, Editorial Board Member for International Journal of Pattern Recognition, and steering committee member for IEEE Transactions on Medical Imaging. 

Since 1990, Dr. Dhawan has chaired numerous NIH special emphasis and review panels, and site visit teams for NIH BTRR program. From 2008-2011, He chaired the NIH Chartered Study Section on Biomedical Computing and Health Informatics. His research interests lie in medical imaging, medical image analysis, point-of-care technologies, pattern recognition and computer-aided-diagnosis.