/College of Engineering and Applied Sciences
Department of Mechanical Engineering

P. Scott Carney, PhD

P. Scott CarenyProfessor and Chair

Office: Light Engineering 113

Email Address: pscott.carney@stonybrook.edu 

 

 

Bio:

P. Scott (Scott) Carney joined the Mechanical Engineering department as chair and professor in Fall, 2025. His research interests are primarily in the theory of light-matter interactions and applications to microscopy, inspection and measurements. 

His principal accomplishments are in coherence theory, inverse problems, and spectroscopy. He has solved inverse problems in near-field optics (NFO), optical coherence tomography (OCT), and mid-IR spectroscopy in scattering environments and is lately interested in effective medium theory and the generation of materials with exotic indices of refraction. He is the author of 130 peer-reviewed publications, has 19 patents in applied physics and optics, and a h-index (Google) of 48.

Education:

  • Ph.D. in Physics, University of Rochester, June 1999
  • B.S. in Engineering Physics, University of Illinois Urbana–Champaign, May 1994

Professional Experience:

  • Chair and Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Stony Brook University, 2025-Present
  • Professor of Optics, Affiliate Professor of Data Science, University of Rochester, July 2017 – June 2025
  • Chief Science and Technology Officer, Optica, October 2021–December 2024
  • Director of The Institute of Optics, University of Rochester, July 2017 – June 2021
  • Diagnostic Photonics Inc., cofounder (2008), board member (2010-2015), Chief Scientific Officer, 2010–2017
  • Interim Founding Director of Innovation, Leadership, and Engineering Entrepreneurship, UIUC, 2017
  • Professor of Technology Entrepreneurship, College of Engineering, UIUC 2017
  • Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, The Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, (Assistant 2001-7, Associate 2007-14) 2014 – 2017
  • Guest Researcher, CIC NanoGUNE, San Sebastian-Donostia, Spain Summer 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015
  • Visiting Professor, Vrije Universiteit (Free University), Amsterdam, 2009
  • Research Associate with Prof J C Schotland, Washington University in St. Louis, 1999 – 2001

Awards & Publications:

  • TBD

Professional Memberships & Service:

  • TBD

Overview:

TBD

Highlights & Accomplishments:

  • Solved the Inverse Problem for Near-Field Optics
  • Solved the Inverse Problem for OCT: ISAM
  • Invented Synthetic Optical Holography (SOH)
     

Research Interests:

  • Implementations of ISAM and SOH
  • Effective Medium Theory and Exotic Indices of Refraction
  • Coherence theory
  • All aspects of light
  • Computered Imaging
  • Spectroscopy,