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Graduate Students

Richard Baheza
Graduate Student, Biomedical Engineering
 
E-mail Address: richard.baheza@vanderbilt.edu
Office Phone: (615) 343-4796
Office: MCN AA-3107

Richard Baheza has been at Vanderbilt since 2003. Before Vanderbilt, he first received his B. Eng. degree in Electronic Engineering and then a M.S. in Biomedical Engineering from the Universidad Autonoma Metropolitana (UAM), where he earned the merit medal (the equivalent of graduating magna cum laude). Currently he is a graduate student in Biomedical Engineering Department and a research assistant working with Dr Yankeelov in the area of cancer imaging.
 
Ann Choe
Graduate Student, Biomedical Engineering
 
E-mail Address: ann.s.choe@vanderbilt.edu
Office Phone: (615) 343-8392
Office: MCN AA-3111

Ann is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Biomedical Engineering. She received her B.E. in Computer Engineering and Math in 2004 and her M.S. in Biomedical Engineering in 2007, both from Vanderbilt University. She is currently working with Dr. Adam Anderson and her primary research interest is validating and analyzing information from diffusion tensor MRI (DTI) in the central nervous system. She is especially interested in finding out how the microstructural environment of white matter, such as fiber coherence, axonal density, and myelin content, defines and characterizes information in DTI and HARDI (High Angular Resolution Diffusion Imaging).

 
Jared Guthrie Cobb
Graduate Student, Biomedical Engineering
 
E-mail Address: jared.g.cobb@vanderbilt.edu
Office Phone: (615) 343-4796
Office: MCN AA-3107

Jared Cobb is a fourth-year graduate student in the Department of Biomedical Engineering and has been a member of the VUIIS since August 2006. He is currently working with Dr. John Gore on determining various properties of proton relaxation in a variety of tissue models. His primary research interest is obtaining a more quantitative understanding of relaxation effects. This knowledge will help determine optimal ways to utilize MRI to advance clinical imaging.

Jared received his BE in Biomedical Engineering and Music from Vanderbilt in 2002 and a MS in BME in 2008 under the direction of Dr. Cynthia Paschal. Further details of Jared's work are located on his research webpage.



 
Daniel Colvin
Graduate Student, Physics and Astronomy
 
E-mail Address: daniel.c.colvin@vanderbilt.edu
Office Phone: (615) 322-6175
Office: MCN AA-1101

Daniel is currently a graduate student in the department of physics and astronomy. He received his B.S. in astronomy and M.S. in physics, both from the University of Florida. He joined the VUIIS in the summer of 2003 and is currently working with Dr. Adam Anderson and Dr. John Gore on various diffusion-related studies, including high angular resolution diffusion (HARD) imaging and diffusion spectroscopy.

 
Ryan Datteri
Graduate Student, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
 
E-mail Address: ryan.d.datteri@vanderbilt.edu
Office Phone: (509) 953-7750
Office: Jacobs 365

 
Jeff Dendy
Graduate Student, Biomedical Engineering
 
E-mail Address: jeffrey.dendy@vanderbilt.edu
Office: MCN R-1104

Dr. Dendy is currently a Fellow in the Department of Cardiovascular Medicine, as well as a PhD student in the Department of Biomedical Engineering. His primary area of research involves analysis of Blood Oxygen Level Dependent (BOLD) signals obtained from the myocardium and how alterations in myocardial physiology affect the signal. He obtained a BE in Biomedical Engineering in 1996 and his MD in 2000, both at Vanderbilt. He completed his residency in Internal Medicine in 2003 at Vanderbilt University as well.

 
Mariam Eapen
Graduate Student, Neuroscience
 
E-mail Address: mariam.eapen@vanderbilt.edu
Office Phone: (615) 343-8392
Office: MCN AA-3111

Mariam Eapen is a third-year graduate student in the Department of Neuroscience and has been with the Imaging Institute since 2006. Her PhD thesis project involves identifying the anatomical and functional architecture of the midbrain dopaminergic system in humans using high resolution magnetic resonance imaging at 7Tesla. She is also working on a project in collaboration with faculty in the Vanderbilt Law School to use neuroimaging to explore the neural correlates of risk assessment in the human brain.
 
Amelie Gillman
Graduate Student, Biomedical Engineering
 
E-mail Address: amelie.r.gillman@vanderbilt.edu
Office Phone: (615) 343-4796
Office: MCN AA-3107

Amelie is a third-year graduate student in the Department of Biomedical Engineering and has been a member of VUIIS since 2005. Her current research is under the direction of Drs. Thomas Yankeelov and Tuhin Sinha and involves the spatial correlation of specialized magnetic resonance imaging metrics and protein signatures in cancerous tissue.
 
Zhaoying "Natalie" Han
Graduate Student, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
 
E-mail Address: natalie.han@vanderbilt.edu
Office Phone: (615) 343-6259
Office: Featheringill Hall 369

Natalie received her M.S. in Electrical Engineering from the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing in 2005. She is a graduate student in the Department of Electrical Engineering and has been a member of VUIIS since 2006. Her advisor is Dr. Benoit Dawant. Her research involves non-rigid registration, MRI atlas generation, deformation based morphometry, and shape analysis on MRI data of children with math difficulties and children with Williams Syndrome.
 
Xin Hong
Graduate Student, Biomedical Engineering
 
E-mail Address: xin.hong@vanderbilt.edu
Office Phone: (615) 322-8835
Office: MCN AA-1112

Xin is a graduate student in the Department of Biomedical Engineering and has been a member of VUIIS since 2004. Her advisor is Dr. Adam Anderson. She received her B.S. in Computer Science from Sun Yat-sen University in China and an M.S. in Biomedical Engineering from Vanderbilt. Her current research involves analysis of the High Angular Resolution Diffusion Imaging (HARDI) data of the human brain and its clinical applications in white matter diseases. One project involves developing an advanced analysis algorithm for the HARDI data in order to get accurate estimates of neural fiber properties, including the intrinsic diffusivities and orientations. Another project is about the spatial normalization of HARDI data, which is critical to make comparisons between subjects. The third project involves the the analysis of group differences in white matter between patients with schizophrenia and normal controls.
 
Adam Horch
Graduate Student, Biomedical Engineering
 
E-mail Address: adam.horch@vanderbilt.edu
Office Phone: (615) 343-0471
Office: MCN AA-1101

Adam joined VUIIS in 2004. His research interests include the imaging physics of multicompartmental MRI signals, chemical exchange phenomenon, and ultrashort-R2 detection as applied to bone tissue characterization as well as the development of MRI solids imaging methods.
 
Vaibhav Janve
Graduate Student, Physics and Astronomy
 
E-mail Address: vaibhav.a.janve@vanderbilt.edu
Office Phone: (615) 322-0030
Office: VUH B-165

Vaibhav Janve is a second-year graduate student in the department of Physics and Astronomy. He is working for Dr. Daniel Gochberg on magnetization transfer imaging. He is currently working on a project involving myelin quantification in small animal models.

 
Christopher W. Jarrett
Graduate Student, Chemical and Physical Biology
 
E-mail Address: christopher.w.jarrett@vanderbilt.edu
Office Phone: (615) 343-8392
Office: MCN AA-3111

Chris Jarrett earned his Bachelors degree in Biomedical Engineering from Vanderbilt University in December 2005, and he expects to receive his Masters of Engineering in BME from Vanderbilt in the spring of 2008. Currently his research involves the development of a phantom to be used for quality assurance of the in-house Siemens Imtek MicroCAT II. This phantom will allow VUIIS to maintain high-quality images while providing a tool for determining imaging protocols on the microCT. He is also researching ways to improve Photoacoustic Tomography.
 
Lindsay Johnson
Graduate Student
 
E-mail Address: lindsay.johnson@vanderbilt.edu
Office Phone: (615) 343-4796
Office: MCN AA-3107

Lindsay is a third year graduate student in the department of Biomedical Engineering working with Dr. Todd Peterson. She is working on a radiation dose-based comparison in PET and SPECT. She is also interested in using CT to quantify bone loss in osteolytic bone lesions. Lindsay received a BS in Biomedical Engineering from the University of California, Davis in 2007.
 
Santosh Katwal
Graduate Student, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
 
E-mail Address: santosh.b.katwal@vanderbilt.edu
Office Phone: (615) 322-0030
Office: VUH B-165

Santosh Katwal received his MS in Electrical Engineering from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, in 2004. He has been a member of VUIIS since May 2007. He is mainly interested in image analysis and mathematical tools for imaging. His current research includes a study of connectivity in the human brain with a primary focus on functional connectivity. His primary advisor is Dr. John Gore and he also works closely with Dr. Baxter Rogers.
 
Susan Kost
Graduate Student
 
E-mail Address: susan.d.kost@vanderbilt.edu

Susan joined the VUIIS in 2008 as a graduate student in the department of Physics and Astronomy. She received her B.S. in Physics from Carnegie Mellon University and her M.S. in Medical Physics from Vanderbilt. Her research focuses on diffusion MRI techniques including temporal diffusion spectroscopy under the direction of Dr. John Gore.
 
Craig Lorang
Graduate Student, Biomedical Engineering
 
E-mail Address: craig.t.lorang@vanderbilt.edu
Office Phone: (615) 322-8430
Office: MCN AA-3111

Craig Lorang is a graduate student in Biomedical Engineering under the direction of Dr. Adam Anderson. His current research investigates using diffusion tensor imaging to assess white matter integrity in children with math difficulties.

 
Mary Loveless
Graduate Student, Biomedical Engineering
 
E-mail Address: mary.loveless@vanderbilt.edu
Office Phone: (615) 343-0471
Office: MCN AA-3101

Mary Loveless has been with the VUIIS since 2006 and the Cancer Imaging Group since 2007. She is under the advisement of Dr. Thomas Yankeelov in the area of Cancer Imaging, and her Master's work involved the development of a 3D angiography technique using high resolution ultrasound. Her current work is in the area of multi-modal molecular imaging to assess the efficacy of anti-cancer treatments.

 
Ben McDonald
Graduate Student, Physics & Astronomy
 
E-mail Address: ben.mcdonald@vanderbilt.edu
Office Phone: (615) 343-0466
Office: MCN AA-1112

Ben studies and develops small animal SPECT systems with Dr. Todd Peterson. High spatial resolution silicon detectors are the focus of their efforts in improving nuclear imaging and possibly combining SPECT with small animal MRI. Ben hails from Washington state, where he studied applied physics and computer science at Whitworth University, graduating in 2004. In 2007 he received an M.S. in physics from Vanderbilt.
 
Eliot McKinley
Graduate Student
 
E-mail Address: eliot.mckinley@vanderbilt.edu
Office Phone: (615) 343-8392
Office: MCN AA-3111


 
Jason Moore
Graduate Student
 
E-mail Address: jason.e.moore@vanderbilt.edu
Office Phone: (615) 322-8430
Office: MCN AA-3111

Jay Moore received a B.S. in physics from the University of Washington and an M.S. in physics from Vanderbilt. His current research includes an MRI exploration of the pulmonary perfusion distribution in healthy human subjects, the implementation of MRI techniques for brain perfusion imaging, and the modeling and quantification of radio frequency field inhomogeneities inherent in ultra-high field MRI.

 
Nathan Mutic
Graduate Student
 
E-mail Address: nathan.j.mutic@vanderbilt.edu
Office Phone: (615) 322-0030
Office: VUH B-165


 
Allen Newton
Graduate Student, Biomedical Engineering
 
E-mail Address: allen.t.newton@vanderbilt.edu
Office Phone: (615) 322-6175
Office: MCN AA-1101

Allen Newton has been a member of VUIIS since January 2004. His advisor is Dr. John Gore, and he also works closely with Dr. Victoria Morgan. He studies connectivity in the human brain and is particularly interested in functional connectivity, the interaction between functionally-related regions of the human brain. Measuring functional connectivity noninvasively is a topic enjoying increased interest from the research community, and Allen is working on the development of better techniques to measure these interactions with fMRI. This is being approached in three ways. First, new measures of functional connectivity in steady state fMRI data are being developed with special attention paid to nonlinear and phase sensitivity. Second, new techniques are being developed for using EEG measurements to inform the calculation of functional connectivity in fMRI data when the electrical measurements are made simultaneously with the relevant imaging. Finally, characterization of the basic signals underlying functional connectivity measurement is being done through evaluation of partial voluming effects using ultra high field (7T) fMRI data.

 
Subechhya Pradhan
Graduate Student, Physics and Astronomy
 
E-mail Address: subechhya.pradhan@vanderbilt.edu
Office Phone: (615) 343-0417
Office: MCN AA-1101

Subechhya Pradhan is from Nepal and is a graduate student in the Department of Physics and Astronomy. She received he B.A. in Physics from Hiram College in Hiram, OH in 2005. She is working on the quantification of metabolites in the brain using Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy.

 
Whitney Schrader
Graduate Student, Neuroscience
 
E-mail Address: whitney.h.schrader@vanderbilt.edu


 
Saikat Sengupta
Graduate Student
 
E-mail Address: saikat.sengupta@vanderbilt.edu
Office Phone: (615) 343-0466
Office: MCN AA-1112

Saikat is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Biomedical Engineering. He received his B.E. in Electrical Engineering from VJTI, Mumbai University, India in 2000 and his M.S. in Biomedical Engineering from University of Memphis in 2003. His primary research interest involves the development of new shimming methods to achieve optimal field homogeneity, novel field mapping methods and pulse sequence design.

 
John Sexton
Graduate Student, Biomedical Engineering
 
E-mail Address: john.sexton@vanderbilt.edu
Office Phone: (615) 343-0466
Office: MCN AA-1112

John Sexton is a graduate student in the Department of Biomedical Engineering and has been a member of VUIIS since August 2004. He works with MRI and fMRI, with a focus on applications and novel techniques. He received his bachelor of science in Physics from Rhodes College in Memphis, TN in May 2004.

 
Jack Skinner
Graduate Student
 
E-mail Address: jack.t.skinner@vanderbilt.edu
Office Phone: (615) 322-8835
Office: MCN AA-1112
 
Elizabeth Ann Stringer
Graduate Student, Neuroscience
 
E-mail Address: elizabeth.a.stringer@vanderbilt.edu
Office Phone: (615) 343-0466

Office: MCN AA-1112

Elizabeth is a graduate student in the Department of Neuroscience and has been a member of the VUIIS since the summer of 2005. She is investigating the neural processing of pain, with particular interest in how genetic factors influence interindividual variability in the perception of pain. She received a BS in Physics from the University of the South in Sewanee, TN in 2003.

 
Christopher Wargo
Graduate Student, Biomedical Engineering
 
E-mail Address: chris.wargo@vanderbilt.edu
Office Phone: (615) 343-0466
Office: MCN AA-1112

Chris Wargo is a graduate student in the Department of Biomedical Engineering and has been a member of VUIIS since August 2004. He works for Dr. Calum Avison on a parallel MRI project, with a focus on the application of the SENSE method for animal imaging. Chris received a BS in Biomedical Engineering and a BA in Astronomy from Boston University in 1998.

 
Jennifer Whisenant
Graduate Student, Biomedical Engineering
 
E-mail Address: j.whisenant@vanderbilt.edu
Office Phone: (615) 322-8835
Office: MCN AA-1112



 
Qing Xu
Graduate Student, Electric Engineering and Computer Science
 
E-mail Address: qing.xu.1@vanderbilt.edu
Office Phone: (615) 322-0030
Office: VUH B-165


 
Zhengyu Yang
Graduate Student
 
E-mail Address: zhengyu.yang@vanderbilt.edu
Office Phone: (615) 343-4796
Office: MCN AA-3107


 


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