	Site Updates
	4-3-2008 Online registration is now closed - You can register onsite at the conference. See the logisitics link for details on where the conference is being held

Hot Topics in Bioengineering Research: Biomedical Imaging Panel Speakers

Miles N Wernick, PhD
Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering Professor of Biomedical Engineering Director, Medical Imaging Research Center (MIRC) Illinois Institute of Technology

Miles N. Wernick, Ph.D., is Director of the Medical Imaging Research Center at the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT), where he is a Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and the Department of Biomedical Engineering. Dr. Wernick is also President of Predictek, Inc., a technology company focused on medical imaging and image analysis. Dr. Wernick received the Ph.D. in Optics from the University of Rochester's Institute of Optics, and was an NIH Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Radiology at the University of Chicago. Dr. Wernick is an active researcher in medical imaging, focusing particularly in phase-sensitive x-ray imaging, tomographic image reconstruction algorithms, computer-aided diagnosis, functional neuroimaging data analysis, and ophthalmic imaging. Dr. Wernick is Associate Editor of IEEE Transactions on Image Processing and SPIE/IS&T Journal of Electronic Imaging. He was lead editor of the book Emission
Tomography: The Fundamentals of PET and SPECT, which has been distributed free of charge to hundreds of researchers worldwide under support from the U.S. Department of Energy. Dr. Wernick’s broad research efforts have been supported by many different NIH institutes, including NHLBI, NCI, NEI, NINDS, NIMH, and NIAMS.

Sven Zuehlsdorff, Ph.D., Staff Scientist , Siemens Medical Solutions USA, Inc.

Sven Zuehlsdorff studied physics at the Stuttgart University with a focus on quantum mechanics and solid state physics. In 2003 he earned his Ph.D. degree for his work on MRI guided interventions at the German Cancer Research Center in Heidelberg, Germany. He joined Siemens Medical Solutions USA, Inc. as a senior scientist early 2004 as part of a cardiovascular MRI Research and Development team in Chicago, Il. His primary focus was the development of interventional methods in collaboration with university hospitals in North America and Europe. Since the beginning of 2007, Sven Zuehlsdorff became as a staff scientist. In this position his main area of interest are infarct and perfusion imaging techniques.

He is transferring novel techniques from research and development to clinical routine by integrating them into the product of commercial MRI scanners. He has published numerous peer-reviewed papers and presents his work regularly on international conferences.

Micheal Cho, Associate Professor, Bioengineering, University of Illinois at Chicago

Dr. Michael Cho is currently an Associate Professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago. He directs the Laboratory of Biomolecular Imaging (LBI) and tissue engineering program. Dr. Cho’s current research is focused on the effects of physical and biochemical cues that can be optimally applied to stem cell-based regenerative medicine and tissue engineering. With funding from NIH, ONR, DOE, Dr. Cho has established a state-of-the-art multiscale imaging laboratory that offers the unique capability to probe biological behavior and response from nanoscale (e.g., protein) to mm-scale (tissue). He also serves as the Director of Graduate Studies with the responsibility to oversee the UIC bioengineering graduate program of > 160 graduate students and has recently been appointed to a 4-year term in the NIH Musculoskeletal Tissue Engineering Study Section

Konstantinos Arfanakis, Assistant Professor, Biomedical Engineering, Illinois Institute of Technology

Dr Arfanakis obtained his bachelor’s in Physics at the University of Athens in Greece, in 1997. He then continued his studies in the Department of Medical Physics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he obtained his MS in 1999, and PhD in 2002. Dr Arfanakis ’ research interests include the development of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data acquisition, image reconstruction, data analysis, and visualization techniques, and the application of these methods for the diagnosis and monitoring of neurological disease. His recent research contributions can be grouped into the following categories:

a) functional MRI, b) diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) and structural connectivity of the brain, c) PROPELLER-MRI data acquisition and image reconstruction, d) lesion detection, e) neuronal structural integrity in seizure disorders, f) microstructural correlates of psychiatric disorders, g) early diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease.