at a glance
Rickson Mesquita is an Associate Professor of Computer Science at the University of Birmingham and fNIRS lead at the Centre for Human Brain Health. His research focuses on extracting trustworthy physiological information from light – robustly enough to use in clinical settings, across individuals, and over time. Working at the intersection of diffuse optics, computational inference, and systems neuroscience, he develops the methods, models, and protocols needed to make near-infrared measurements of the brain precise and accurate rather than merely quantitative.
Dr. Mesquita earned his B.Sc. and Ph.D. in Physics from the University of Campinas, Brazil, and has also worked at Massachusetts General Hospital and the University of Pennsylvania, USA. He spent over a decade building and leading the Biomedical Optics Lab in Brazil, one of the first groups in Latin America to develop and apply diffuse optical methods for neuroscience and clinical research. He joined Birmingham in 2021, where his group works on probabilistic inference for optical time series, physics-informed machine learning for DCS and fNIRS, reproducibility-by-design protocols for longitudinal brain monitoring, and the application of these methods to brain injury, stroke, neurodevelopment, and functional plasticity. Dr. Mesquita currently serves on the board of directors of the Society for Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy and chairs its Education Committee, is an associate editor of Neurophotonics, and is an active member of SPIE and Optica.
Education
2026 Postgraduate certification in Higher Education, University of Birmingham, UK
2009 Ph.D., Institute of Physics, University of Campinas, Brazil
2008 Teacher qualification in Physics, University of Campinas, Brazil
2005 M.Sc. in Physics, University of Campinas, Brazil
2003 B.Sc. in Physics, University of Campinas, Brazil
Professional Experience
2023- Associate Professor of Computer Science, University of Birmingham, UK
2019-2025 Associate Professor of Physics, University of Campinas, Brazil
2011-2019 Assistant Professor of Physics, University of Campinas, Brazil
2009-2012 Postdoctoral Research Associate with Arjun G. Yodh, University of Pennsylvania, USA
2007-2008 Visiting Research Scholar with David Boas, Massachusetts General Hospital, USA
2000-2002 Research Assistant with Esther M. D. Nicola, University of Campinas, Brazil
Honors, Leadership Positions, Fellowships, Memberships
Fellow, Advance HE (2026- )
Post-Graduate Research Tutor, School of Computer Science, University of Birmingham (2025- )
Head of Post-Graduate Research Admissions, School of Computer Science, University of Birmingham (2024- )
fNIRS Lead, Centre for Human Brain Health, CHBH, University of Birmingham (2023- )
Steering Committee Member, Neurotech-R (2023- )
Line Manager, Hub of Artificial Intelligence for Health and Well-Being, Viva Bem (2022- )
Elected Member at Board of Directors, Society for functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopoy, SfNIRS (2021- )
Community Reviewer, Frontiers in Neuroergonomics (2020- )
Head of Undergraduate Studies, Institute of Physics, University of Campinas (2018-2021)
Associate Editor, Neurophotonics (2017- )
Deputy Head of Undergraduate Studies, Institute of Physics, University of Campinas (2014-2018)
Depty Director, Exploratory Museum of Science, University of Campinas (2014-2014)
Research Coordinator, Brazilian Institute of Neuroscience and Neurotechnology, BRAINN (2013-2023)
Visiting Professor, Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Pennsylvania (2012-2018)
Member, Society for functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy, SfNIRS
Member, Optica (former Optical Society of America, OSA)
Young Investigator travel award, International Society on Cerebral Blood Flow and Metabolism, 2011
Trainee abstract award, Organization for Human Brain Mapping (2008)
Travel award, OSA Biomedical Optics (2008)