J. Stuart Nelson, M.D., Ph.D, is Medical Director of the Beckman Laser Institute and Medical Clinic, and Professor of Surgery and Biomedical Engineering at the University of California, Irvine. Dr. Nelson served as president of the American Society for Laser Medicine and Surgery (ASLMS) 2001-2002 and is now editor-in-chief of the ASLMS journal Lasers in Surgery and Medicine. Dr. Nelson has published more than 300 scientific articles and 13 book chapters. He has been awarded 15 patents for developing biomedical devices from the Patent and Trademark Office, United States Department of Commerce. At present, the specific problems being addressed by his research program are: 1) the characterization of photothermal heating in tissue; 2) solution of inverse problems related to laser stimulated infrared emission from biological tissues (infrared tomography); 3) optimization of laser tissue dosimetry for surgery; 4) optical, thermal and acoustic imaging of living tissue; 5) modeling of bioheat transfer; and 6) novel therapies for the treatment of cutaneous vascular malformations.