Located in beautiful Milan, Italy, the 2014 International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine (ISMRM) Conference was a distinguishing week for UW Radiology. With 22 researchers giving nearly 60 presentations, UW Radiology had a significant impact on the meeting . Leading the way was Department Chair Thomas Grist, M.D., FACR, who presented the Mansfield Lecture, one of three named talks at the conference.
Grist’s lecture spotlighted the strategies used to promote creativity and innovation in research groups. He named approaches such as embracing an outsider perspective and making time for relaxing activities to promote “right brain” thinking, to draw out the creative insight that leads to an “Aha!” moment.
Grist referred to several of his own research experiences to illustrate how effective these methods can be, including his collaboration with UW Professor Charles Mistretta, Ph.D., to develop 3D TRICKS (time-resolved imaging). Grist also cited studies promoting strong interpersonal relationships within a research group and a philosophy of information sharing between institutions.
Professor Scott Reeder, M.D., Ph.D., Chief of MR Radiology, and Director of the UW Liver Imaging Research Program (LIRP), moderated a plenary session focused on the impact of obesity in MRI. In addition, six members of the LIRP gave scientific talks on topics ranging from liver-fat quantification to the effects of echo time sampling, and LIRP member Samir Sharma, Ph.D., was elected Junior Fellow. Other faculty members including Assistant Professors Oliver Wieben, Ph.D., and Scott Nagle, M.D., Ph.D. contributed to the symposium with multiple submissions each.
However, UW attendees of the conference didn’t miss out on Milan itself. Several department members were lucky enough to secure tickets to view Da Vinci’s The Last Supper, while others admired the architectural beauty of the world-renowned Milan Cathedral and the Porta Sempione.
At the end of the week, UW Radiology took home 13 magna cum laude awards and 6 summa cum laude awards. The full list of winners follows below.
ISMRM Awards
** magna cum laude
* summa cum laude
§ Selected for Junior Fellow
Artz, Nathan, Ph.D.
** Multi-Site, Multi-Vendor Reproducibility of R2* Relaxometry on an SPIO Phantom at 1.5T and 3T
Hernando, Diego, Ph.D.
** Multi-site, multi-vendor reproducibility of R2 relaxometry on an SPIO phantom at 1.5T and 3T
** Limits of liver fat quantification in the presence of severe iron overload
Horng, Debra, M.S.
** R2* of Water and Fat in Hepatic Iron Overload: Implications for R2*-Corrected Fat Quantification
Jang, Hyungseok, M.S.
** Accelerated Quantitative Single Point EPR Imaging Using Model-Based Compressed Sensing
** Measurement of T2 and T2* in Spin Echo Single Point EPR Imaging Using a Single Acquisition Method
Jeong, Daniel, M.D.
** Ventricular Inefficiency in Repaired Tetralogy of Fallot Assessed with 4D Flow MRI
Kruger, Stanley, B.S.
* Comparison of Regional Ventilation Defect Distribution Between Oxygen-Enhanced and Hyperpolarized He-3 MRI
Liu, Fang, M.S.
* In-Vivo Assessment of Multi-Component Relaxation of Articular Cartilage Using McRISE at 3.0T
Loecher, Michael, B.S.
* Robust Whole-Brain Blood Tracking from 4D Flow Using Displacement Corrected Probabilistic Streamlines
Morrison, Courtney, B.S.
** Time-Resolved Dixon MR Angiography of Patients with Peripheral Vascular Disease at 3.0 T
Mossahebi, Pouria, Ph.D.
** Analysis and Optimization of Quantitative Magnetization Transfer Imaging Considering the Effect of Non-Exchanging Component
Niles, David, M.S.
** Effect of Anesthesia on Renal R2* Measured by BOLD MRI
Salmani Rahimi, Mahdi, B.S.
** Interleaved Variable Density Sampling for Combined Dynamic Contrast Enhanced MRI and MRA of the Liver
** Flow-Induced Phase Effects in No n-Subtractive Fat-Water Separated MRA
§ Sharma, Samir, Ph.D.
* A Joint Background Field Removal and Dipole Deconvolution Approach for Quantitative Susceptibility Mapping in the Liver
* Improving Water-Fat Separation Using Object-Based Information of the B0 Field Inhomogeneity
Smith, Matthew, Ph.D.
** Approach to Characterize Magnetic Inhomogenities for Development of MRI Sequences Near Metallic Prostheses
Wentland, Andrew, Ph.D.
* Non-Invasive In Vivo Measurements of Inertial Forces in Muscle Using Phase Contrast Magnetic Resonance Imaging