A Magnetic Journey
Find out more about the Inaugural Lecture of Professor Karin Shmueli
Lecture held on Wednesday 22 May 2024
From a PhD at UCL to postdoctoral research the USA National Institutes of Health and attracted back to UCL again, I will describe my magnetic journey to becoming a Professor of Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) Physics in October 2021. I will talk about magnetic susceptibility: what is it, why is it useful and how we can calculate it from MRI phase images that are not usually used. I will present some of the research I have done with my team and collaborators to optimise quantitative susceptibility mapping (QSM) for clinical applications from head to (almost) toe, such as: in the brains of people with Parkinson’s disease, epilepsy and sickle cell anaemia, in head and neck cancer down to prostate and pelvic imaging. Finally, I will introduce the start of my journey into using QSM to study brain function and using MRI to measure electrical conductivity.
About Professor Karin Shmueli
Karin Shmueli is a Professor of Magnetic Resonance Imaging Physics. She is internationally recognised as a pioneer of and leader in the field of quantitative magnetic susceptibility mapping (QSM): a technique to calculate pathophysiologically relevant maps representing tissue composition (e.g. iron content, calcifications and myelination) from the phase of the MRI signal often discarded in conventional MRI. Since (re)joining UCL Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering as a Lecturer in MRI in January 2012, Prof. Shmueli has built and leads an MRI physics research group and a collaborative research programme involving scientists and clinicians in the UK and worldwide. She currently holds a European Research Council Consolidator Grant and a Cancer Research UK Multidisciplinary Award.
