2017 IBA-Europhysics Prize Winner
The European Physical Society, through its Nuclear Physics Division, has awarded the 2017 IBA-Europhysics Prize to
Professor Habib Zaidi, Department of Medical Imaging and Information Sciences, Geneva University Hospital, Geneva, Switzerland
Professor Zaidi has been awarded the prize “for outstanding and seminal contributions he has made in the field of quantitative multimodality molecular imaging (PET/CT and PET/MRI) and computational modeling of anthropomorphic phantoms in connection with Monte Carlo-based radiation dosimetry calculations”.
Prof. Zaidi is an internationally recognized expert in quantitative multimodality molecular imaging. He has pioneered novel approaches to compensate for physical degrading factors on hybrid PET/CT and PET/MRI systems and spearheaded the development of novel strategies for PET image reconstruction and segmentation. Recently, Prof. Zaidi’s Lab pioneered the development of novel atlas-guided and joint reconstruction of activity and attenuation for the purpose of MRI-guided attenuation correction in PET/MRI and MRI-guided radiation therapy planning. More recently, his lab contributed to the early development and optimisation of protocols for indirect and direct 4D whole-body PET parametric imaging techniques in clinical oncology with the ultimate aim to demonstrate their clinical feasibility and benefits gained from their highly quantitative potential.
Prof. Zaidi is Chief physicist and head of the PET Instrumentation & Neuroimaging Laboratory at Geneva University Hospital and faculty member at the medical school of Geneva University. He is also a Professor of Medical Physics at the University of Groningen (Netherlands), Adjunct Professor of Medical Physics and Molecular Imaging at the University of Southern Denmark and visiting Professor at the University Cergy-Pontoise (France). His academic accomplishments in the area of quantitative PET imaging have been well recognised by his peers and by the medical imaging community at large, since he is a recipient of many awards and distinctions.
The 2017 IBA-Europhysics Prize will be presented to Prof. Zaidi at a ceremony during the 4th European Nuclear Physics Conference, 2-7 September, 2018, to be held in Bologna, Italy.
