Chris Schaffer received his undergraduate degree from the University of Florida in 1995 and his Ph.D. from Harvard University, working with Eric Mazur, in 2001. Both of his degrees are in Physics. As a post-doc at UCSD, Chris worked with David Kleinfeld in the Physics department. He is currently an Assistant Professor at Cornell University in the Department of Biomedical Engineering. His research focuses on the use of nonlinear optical interactions between femtosecond duration laser pulses and biological materials as a tool for precise ablation of structures and quantitative observation of dynamical processes in live biological samples. A current area of interest is the pathophysiology of small-scale stroke and studies of the changes in cerebral blood flow that result from localized, optically-induced occlusions in the microvasculature.