Leslie Ying named a fellow of ISMRM

By Elizabeth Egan 

“Leslie Ying has made significant contributions in fast MRI imaging and AI-assisted MRI imaging,” said Yun Wu, chair of the Department of Biomedical Engineering. “Her elevation to fellow of the ISMRM is a well-deserved recognition for her outstanding and impactful work in the MRI field.”

The fellowship is given to those who have made a significant contribution to research in a field within the society’s purposes, contributed in a significant manner to the development of the society or who have made a significant contribution to education in MR.

Ying is a leader in developing and advancing reconstructive techniques for fast MR imaging. She has made contributions to the expanding field such as developing solutions to parallel imaging reconstruction and working on machine-learning approaches.

“Ying is an internationally recognized scholar in the field of biomedical imaging who has been a leader on-campus in the successful establishment of our Department of Biomedical Engineering, and in her own community,” said Jonathan Bird, chair of the Department of Electrical Engineering. “She continues to demonstrate innovation in her scholarship in medical-image reconstruction, most recently through the incorporation of deep learning techniques. This latest accolade from ISMRM surely reflects the sustained excellence of her research.”

Some of Ying’s most recent research includes working on accelerated parallel imaging with compressed sensing. She was the first to propose and successfully integrate the technique for use in clinical MRI scanners. Ying has also made contributions to learning-based MRI reconstruction and co-authored the paper, “Accelerating magnetic resonance imaging via deep learning” which was the first to propose the idea and demonstrate the feasibility of deep learning in MR image reconstruction. 

Ying has made other contributions to the MR community, including teaching in the ISMRM educational sessions and serving on the organizing committee for ISMRM workshops. She was also a deputy editor of Magnetic Resonance in Medicine and in 2020 became the Editor-In-Chief of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Transaction on Medical Imaging, a highly rated journal.

Ying was also named a fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering in 2020 and she received a CAREER award from the National Science Foundation in 2009.

Ying received her bachelor’s degree in electronics engineering from Tsinghua University in 1997 and both her MS and PhD in electrical engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1999 and 2003, respectively.