Brown’s Kimani Toussaint, professor and senior associate dean of the School of Engineering, was recently named to Science's Board of Reviewing Editors (BoRE). The board members offer expert advice to senior editors at Science, and Toussaint was pegged for his expertise in bio imaging and nanophotonics.
“It’s an honor to be a member of BoRE, a group which has the responsibility to review some of the very best scientific articles in the world,” Toussaint said of his appointment, which began in October. “I consider it to be both an important and necessary service.”
Many of the members of the editorial review board which serves Science are well-regarded experts in their field. Science is considered one of the most prestigious scientific journals in the world, reaching an estimated worldwide readership of more than one million. Its authorship is global as well, and articles in the journal consistently rank among the world’s most cited research.
Prior to joining Brown in 2019, Toussaint was on the faculty at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign for 12 years in the Department of Mechanical Science and Engineering. He directs the laboratory for Photonics Research of Bio/nano Environments (PROBE Lab), an interdisciplinary research group which focuses on both developing nonlinear optical imaging techniques for quantitative assessment of biological tissues, and novel methods for harnessing plasmonic nanostructures for light-driven control of matter. His research has been supported by a diverse array of federal and private funding sources including the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, the Department of Energy, the National Academies Keck Futures Initiative, and the Burroughs Wellcome Fund.
Toussaint was a recipient of a 2010 NSF CAREER Award, the 2014-2015 Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Visiting Associate Professor at MIT, the 2015 Illinois Dean’s Award for Excellence in Research, the 2017 Illinois Everitt Award for Teaching Excellence, and the 2019 Campus Distinguished Promotion Award (at Illinois). He is also a Fellow of both the Optical Society of America and the SPIE (the International Society for Optics and Photonics), and holds senior member status in the Institute of Electric and Electronic Engineers (IEEE).
He was named Brown’s School of Engineering Senior Associate Dean in August of 2020, and works closely with the dean on all matters related to promoting the School of Engineering and its academic mission.