Ponnada Narayana, Ph.D., and Jonathan Ophir, Ph.D., professors in the Department of Diagnostic and Interventional Imaging at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth) Medical School, are among recipients of the 2013 Distinguished Investigator Award of the Academy of Radiology Research.
Narayana is director of Magnetic Resonance Research at the UTHealth Medical School. His major research interests include quantitative magnetic resonance of the central nervous system, development of advanced magnetic resonance techniques and image processing. His research has been continuously funded by the National Institutes of Health for the last 25 years. He has published more than 240 papers in peer-reviewed journals and is an elected fellow of the International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine.
Ophir is director of the Ultrasonics and Elastographics Laboratory at the UTHealth Medical School. His current research is focused on ultrasonic tissue characterization and elastography, the imaging of the elastic properties of soft tissues using ultrasound. He holds 27 United States and foreign patents in the area of ultrasound instrumentation, imaging and measurement techniques. His research has been focused primarily on imaging of breast cancer and has been supported continuously for more than three decades by the National Cancer Institute, part of the National Institutes of Health.
Recipients of the award have attained a level of accomplishment that ranks within the top 10 percent of all academic radiology faculty. The recipients will be inducted into the academy's Council of Distinguished Investigators during the Radiological Society of North America's meeting in December.
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