Rate My Professor Ze Wang

Ze Wang, PhD, is a Professor with primary appointment in the Department of Diagnostic Radiology and Nuclear Medicine at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, within the broader field of Medicine. He joined the University of Maryland, Baltimore in 2019, where he established the Imaging Computing Laboratory (ICL). Dr. Wang earned his PhD from Shanghai Jiao Tong University in 2003. His research specializes in magnetic resonance (MR) imaging, neuroimaging signal processing, and imaging-based translational research focused on Alzheimer's disease and addiction. Key areas include arterial spin labeling (ASL) perfusion MRI and advanced image reconstruction techniques. He developed the first open-source software package for ASL data processing, ASLtbx, along with algorithms such as MCMLI and SNAPPI for multi-dimensional k-space based parallel imaging reconstruction, and MRF-ZOOM, an optimized dictionary searching method for magnetic resonance fingerprinting that operates without a pre-defined full dictionary. In neuroimaging, he created an fMRI-based brain entropy mapping (BEN) tool and a multivariate lesion-symptom mapping algorithm (SVR-LSM). He maintains these open-source tools: ASLtbx, SVR-LSM, and BENtbx.

Dr. Wang has authored over 148 peer-reviewed journal publications, with highly cited works including "Empirical optimization of ASL data analysis using an ASL data processing toolbox: ASLtbx" (2008, Magnetic Resonance Imaging), "Applications of arterial spin labeled MRI in the brain" (2012, Journal of Magnetic Resonance Imaging), "Multivariate lesion-symptom mapping using support vector regression" (2014, Human Brain Mapping), and "Neural organization of spoken language revealed by lesion-symptom mapping" (2015, Nature Communications). In October 2023, he was named a Distinguished Investigator by the Academy for Radiology & Biomedical Imaging Research, with the award presented at the 2023 RSNA meeting. He holds secondary appointments in Psychiatry and is affiliated with the Center for Advanced Imaging Research (CAIR) and the Maryland Psychiatric Research Center. Recent research incorporates deep machine learning for ASL data processing and image reconstruction, blood-brain barrier (BBB) imaging, and brain information mapping.