Dr. Jeffrey Siewerdsen is promoted to Professor
Jeffrey Siewerdsen has been promoted to Professor of Biomedical Engineering (BME) effective March 1, 2013. Dr. Siewerdsen holds appointments in BME, Computer Science, Radiology, and the Armstrong Institute and heads the I-STAR Lab.
Dr. Siewerdsen’s research focuses on the physics of medical imaging performance, new technologies for 3D x-ray imaging, and new methods for 3D image reconstruction and registration. His work emphasizes translation of new technologies to both image-guided interventions and diagnostic imaging. In the last decade, his laboratory helped to produce the first systems for cone-beam CT guidance of surgery and radiotherapy that are now state of the art in clinical care and advanced the use of novel spectral and tomographic approaches to imaging of lung cancer and musculoskeletal disease. Such translational emphasis is grounded in the physics and mathematics of image quality, including rigorous formulation of the imaging task in designing and optimizing new imaging systems. “Taking image science to task,” says Dr. Siewerdsen, “amounts to being able to describe mathematically what it is you’re looking for. With that, you have a strong foundation in first principles of imaging physics that accelerates the translation of new imaging systems out of the laboratory and into first clinical studies.”
Dr. Siewerdsen’s laboratory includes students and junior faculty working closely with clinical collaborators. “Clinical partnership is essential to what we do,” he explains. “It helps us identify and understand the important problems, which is in many ways the hardest part.” Clinical collaborators at Hopkins include Dr. John Carrino (Musculoskeletal Radiology), Dr. Jay Khanna (Orthopaedic Surgery), Dr. Gary Gallia and Dr. Ziya Gokaslan (Neurosurgery), Dr. Douglas Reh (Otolaryngology — Head and Neck Surgery), and Dr. Marc Sussman (Thoracic Surgery). In the last decade, such collaborations have spanned NIH-funded projects and industry partnerships in image-guided skull base tumor surgery, spine, lung, and brain surgery as well as diagnostic imaging of lung cancer, osteoporosis, and arthritis.
An inaugural talk and reception to celebrate Dr. Siewerdsen’s promotion will be held on Tuesday, July 2, at 3:00 pm at the Tilghman Auditorium.