Rate My Professor Ze Wang

Ze Wang, PhD, is Professor in the Department of Diagnostic Radiology and Nuclear Medicine at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, with secondary appointments in Psychiatry and the Maryland Psychiatric Research Center. He joined the University of Maryland, Baltimore in 2019 as Associate Professor and established the Imaging Computing Laboratory in the Department of Diagnostic Radiology and Nuclear Medicine. Prior to this, he served as Associate Professor and Director of the MRI Center at Temple University School of Medicine from 2016 to 2019, Principal Investigator and Professor at the Center for Cognitive and Brain Disorders at Hangzhou Normal University from 2014 to 2016, and Research Assistant Professor in Psychiatry and Bioengineering at the University of Pennsylvania from 2009 to 2016. Earlier positions include Research Associate at the University of Pennsylvania from 2006 to 2009 and postdoctoral fellow in Neurology there from 2003 to 2006 under Dr. John A. Detre. Dr. Wang earned his PhD in Biomedical Engineering from Shanghai Jiao Tong University in 2003 and B.A. in Signal Detection Technology and Instruments from Hefei University of Technology in 1995.

Dr. Wang's research focuses on magnetic resonance imaging techniques, including arterial spin labeling perfusion MRI, neuroimaging signal processing, image reconstruction, and applications of deep machine learning. His translational work addresses Alzheimer's disease, addiction, brain development, blood-brain barrier imaging, and brain information mapping. He developed the first open-source ASL processing toolbox ASLtbx, brain entropy mapping toolbox BENtbx using resting-state fMRI, and multivariate lesion-symptom mapping algorithm SVR-LSM, along with advanced reconstruction methods like 3D background suppressed spiral readout ASL MRI, MCMLI for 2D parallel imaging, SNAPPI for 3D imaging, and MRF-ZOOM for magnetic resonance fingerprinting. He has authored over 148 peer-reviewed journal papers with an h-index of 55. Key publications include 'An inverse-U shape brain entropy progression trajectory identified in aging and AD' (Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience, 2020), which characterized abnormal brain entropy changes in Alzheimer's disease, and 'Long-lasting effects of insufficient sleep on behavior, cognition, mental health, and brain in pre-adolescents' (Lancet Child & Adolescent Health). His contributions have earned awards such as the 2023 Distinguished Investigator Award from the Academy for Radiology & Biomedical Imaging Research, 2021 Reubin S. Mezrich Research Prize, 2005 Shanghai Excellent Thesis Award, and 2011 Distinguished Reviewer for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine.