Dr. Elizabeth Hillman is the Herbert and Florence Irving Professor at Columbia’s Zuckerman Institute and a Professor of Biomedical Engineering and Radiology at Columbia University. Her Laboratory for Functional Optical Imaging is developing novel biomedical imaging and microscopy techniques that use light to capture information about the structure and function of living tissues. She speaks about using light to probe the structure of the brain, how optical imaging is used in daily life, and her experience as a woman working in academia and male-dominated startups.