Hao Chen is a Ph.D. student in Electrical Engineering at the University of Notre Dame, working under the guidance of Professor Scott Howard. His research centers on optimization methods and optical imaging. He focuses on statistical modeling and experimental studies in frequency-domain optics and fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy (FLIM) under challenging noise environments, particularly those involving mixed Poisson–Gaussian noise. He is also deeply interested in applying modern machine learning and generative models to optimization and inverse problems in scientific imaging. His work explores methods for reconstructing images degraded by distortion. He is further motivated by developing general mathematical and physical frameworks to advance these approaches.