/College of Engineering and Applied Sciences
Department of Mechanical Engineering

P. Scott Carney, PhD

P. Scott CarenyProfessor and Chair, Mechanical Engineering

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

Publications:

Professional Memberships & Service:

  • Fellow of AIMBE and Optica. 
  • Former Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of the Optical Society of America (2016-2021).

Overview:

Prof. Carney is an applied theorist.  His work has focused mainly in optics with specialization in coherence theory, imaging, metrology, and nano optics.  He is particularly interested lately in nonlinear spectroscopy, squeezed-light interferometry, and the microscopic foundations of optical materials.

Highlights & Accomplishments:

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

Research Areas:

Research Interests:

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