I am a practicing board certified Neuroradiologist with sub-specialization in pediatric Neuroradiology for almost 20 years. I have been in several leadership positions including being the division head in neuroimaging in the department of Medical Imaging at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago for almost 5 years as well as founding, managing, and acting as director forthe pediatric neuroradiology fellowship program in my department. In recent years, I have found myself deeply interested in pursuing research activities in my academic career. As some of my personal academic goals in Neuroradiological research are attained, I am motivated by the positive outcomes achieved in projects for which I have participated in the advancement of pediatric neuroradiology. One of the first research projects for which I participated in, I acted as the neuroradiologist/neuroimaging liaison for Children’s Memorial Hospital in the Pediatric Brain Tumor Consortium. My responsibilities were to ensure the proper protocols were followed and to relay information to my staff and colleagues. In the past 3 years, I completed a Phase III clinical trial using Doteram, an alternative MRI contrast agent, in children between the ages of 2 and 17 years of age. A majority of this patient population were pediatric brain tumor patients. As the principal investigator in this study at Lurie Children’s Hospital, my team and I were successful in recruiting the greatest number of pediatric patients in the United States for this trial. Our program played a significant role with FDA approval of this contrast agent in the U.S., completing and successfully passing an audit by the FDA as a U.S. pediatric site. This experience provided me a better understanding of the dynamics of managing a clinical trial. Taking this skill set into collaboration of communicating complex imaging data to the academic community is the next step and a natural progression in my professional stage. My most recent projects include advanced form of MRI imaging using MR Diffusion, Diffusion Tensor and MR Perfusion Imaging techniques. These techniques will be utilized helping to discriminate various brain tumor tissue types with the goal to assist in treatment planning and ultimately improving patient outcome

Multi-Compartment Diffusion Weighted Imaging,Transcranial Doppler Imaging, MRI imaging using MR Diffusion, Diffusion Tensor and MR Perfusion Imaging techniques.