Maryellen L. Giger, Ph.D. is the A.N. Pritzker Distinguished Service Professor of Radiology, Committee on Medical Physics, and the College at the University of Chicago. She is also the Vice-Chair of Radiology (Basic Science Research) and the immediate past Director of the CAMPEP-accredited Graduate Programs in Medical Physics/ Chair of the Committee on Medical Physics at the University.
For over 30 years, she has conducted research on computer-aided diagnosis, including computer vision, machine learning, and deep learning, in the areas of breast cancer, lung cancer, prostate cancer, lupus, and bone diseases.
Over her career, she has served on various NIH, DOD, and other funding agencies’ study sections, and is now a member of the NIBIB Advisory Council of NIH.
She is a former president of the American Association of Physicists in Medicine and a former president of the SPIE (the International Society of Optics and Photonics) and was the inaugural Editor-in-Chief of the SPIE Journal of Medical Imaging.
She is a member of the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and was awarded the William D. Coolidge Gold Medal from the American Association of Physicists in Medicine, the highest award given by the AAPM. She is a Fellow of AAPM, AIMBE, SPIE, SBMR, IEEE, and IAMBE, a recipient of the EMBS Academic Career Achievement Award and the SPIE Director's Award, and a Hagler Institute Fellow at Texas A&M University. In 2013, Giger was named by the International Congress on Medical Physics (ICMP) as one of the 50 medical physicists with the most impact on the field in the last 50 years. In 2018, she received the iBIO iCON Innovator award.
She has more than 200 peer-reviewed publications (over 300 publications), has more than 30 patents and has mentored over 100 graduate students, residents, medical students, and undergraduate students.
Her research in computational image-based analyses of breast cancer for risk assessment, diagnosis, prognosis, and response to therapy has yielded various translated components, and she is now using these image-based phenotypes, i.e., these “virtual biopsies” in imaging genomics association studies for discovery.
She has now extended her AI in medical imaging research to include the analysis of COVID-19 on CT and chest radiographs, and is PI on the NIH NIBIB-funded Medical Imaging and Data Resource Center (MIDRC).
She was a cofounder of Quantitative Insights, Inc., which started through the 2009-2010 New Venture Challenge at the University of Chicago. QI produced QuantX, which in 2017, became the first FDA-cleared, machine-learning-driven system to aid in cancer diagnosis (CADx). In 2019, QuantX was named one of TIME magazine's inventions of the year, and was bought by Qlarity Imaging.
University of Chicago
Chicago, IL
PhD - medical physics
1985
University of Exeter
Exeter, England
MSc - physics
1979
Illinois Benedictine College
Lisle, IL
BS - physics, math, health science
1978
A review of explainable and interpretable AI with applications in COVID-19 imaging.
Fuhrman JD, Gorre N, Hu Q, Li H, El Naqa I, Giger ML. A review of explainable and interpretable AI with applications in COVID-19 imaging. Med Phys. 2022 Jan; 49(1):1-14.
PMID: 34796530
Machine Learning for Early Detection of Hypoxic-Ischemic Brain Injury After Cardiac Arrest.
Mansour A, Fuhrman JD, Ammar FE, Loggini A, Davis J, Lazaridis C, Kramer C, Goldenberg FD, Giger ML. Machine Learning for Early Detection of Hypoxic-Ischemic Brain Injury After Cardiac Arrest. Neurocrit Care. 2021 Dec 06.
PMID: 34873672
Report from the RSNA COVID-19 Task Force: COVID-19 Impact on Academic Radiology Research-A Survey of Vice Chairs of Research.
Mossa-Basha M, Krupinski EA, Filippi CG, Sharpe RE, Giger M. Report from the RSNA COVID-19 Task Force: COVID-19 Impact on Academic Radiology Research-A Survey of Vice Chairs of Research. J Am Coll Radiol. 2021 Dec 03.
PMID: 34919832
Medical imaging of COVID-19.
Giger M. Medical imaging of COVID-19. J Med Imaging (Bellingham). 2021 Jan; 8(Suppl 1):010101.
PMID: 34754885
Clinical Artificial Intelligence Applications: Breast Imaging.
Hu Q, Giger ML. Clinical Artificial Intelligence Applications: Breast Imaging. Radiol Clin North Am. 2021 Nov; 59(6):1027-1043.
PMID: 34689871
Lessons learned in transitioning to AI in the medical imaging of COVID-19.
El Naqa I, Li H, Fuhrman J, Hu Q, Gorre N, Chen W, Giger ML. Lessons learned in transitioning to AI in the medical imaging of COVID-19. J Med Imaging (Bellingham). 2021 Jan; 8(Suppl 1):010902-10902.
PMID: 34646912
Role of standard and soft tissue chest radiography images in deep-learning-based early diagnosis of COVID-19.
Hu Q, Drukker K, Giger ML. Role of standard and soft tissue chest radiography images in deep-learning-based early diagnosis of COVID-19. J Med Imaging (Bellingham). 2021 Jan; 8(Suppl 1):014503.
PMID: 34595245
Multi-Stage Harmonization for Robust AI across Breast MR Databases.
Whitney HM, Li H, Ji Y, Liu P, Giger ML. Multi-Stage Harmonization for Robust AI across Breast MR Databases. Cancers (Basel). 2021 Sep 26; 13(19).
PMID: 34638294
Anatomic Point-Based Lung Region with Zone Identification for Radiologist Annotation and Machine Learning for Chest Radiographs.
Li F, Armato SG, Engelmann R, Rhines T, Crosby J, Lan L, Giger ML, MacMahon H. Anatomic Point-Based Lung Region with Zone Identification for Radiologist Annotation and Machine Learning for Chest Radiographs. J Digit Imaging. 2021 08; 34(4):922-931.
PMID: 34327625
Robustness of radiomic features of benign breast lesions and hormone receptor positive/HER2-negative cancers across DCE-MR magnet strengths.
Whitney HM, Drukker K, Edwards A, Papaioannou J, Medved M, Karczmar G, Giger ML. Robustness of radiomic features of benign breast lesions and hormone receptor positive/HER2-negative cancers across DCE-MR magnet strengths. Magn Reson Imaging. 2021 10; 82:111-121.
PMID: 34174331
Fellow
Chinese Optical Society (COS)
2021
Directors' Award
SPIE
2021
Honored Educator Award
RSNA
2020
Fellow
IAMBE (International Academy of Medical & Biological Engineering)
2019
Top 100 Inventions of 2019, for QuantX
TIME magazine
2019
Fellow
Society of Breast MRI (SBMR)
2018
Crain's Chicago Notable Women in Education
Crain's Chicago
2018
iCON Innovator Award
IBIO Institute
2018
Hagler Institute Fellow
Texas A & M University
2017 - 2020
Fellow
IEEE
2016
Academic Career Achievement Award
Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBS)
2016
Visionary Award
Benedictine University
2015
William D. Coolidge Gold Medal
American Association of Physicists in Medicine (AAPM)
2015
Distinguished Investigator
Academy of Radiology Research
2015
Fellow
SPIE
2014
Distinguished Science Alumni Award
Benedictine University
2014
Named by the International Congress on Medical Physics (ICMP) as one of the 50 medical physicists wi
2013
Elected National Academy of Engineering
National Academy of Engineering
2010
Excellence Award
University of Chicago Paul Hodges Alumni Society
2009
Distinguished Alumni Award
Benedictine University
2006
Senior Member
IEEE
2005
Third Vice President (Honorary)
RSNA
2005
Fellow
AAPM
2001
Fellow
AIMBE
2000
Stauffer Award, Academic Radiology
1995
Sylvia Sorkin Greenfield Award
AAPM
1995
First Place Award, Young Investigators' Symposium
AAPM
1985
B.S. summa cum laude
Illinois Benedictine College
1978
Procopian Award
Illinois Benedictine College
1978
Rotary International Fellowship
1978 - 1979
Rev. Shonka, O.S.B. Scholarship Award in Physics
Illinois Benedictine College
1977
President's Scholarship Award
Illinois Benedictine College
1975 - 1977