Bioengineering Program Director

Tamer S. Ibrahim, PhD

Tamer S. Ibrahim, PhD received his BS degree with distinction and honors in electrical engineering (EE) and option in computer science, and MS and PhD degrees in electrical engineering from Ohio State University in 6/96, 12/98, and 3/03, respectively. He currently serves as the John A. Swanson professor of Bioengineering, Psychiatry, and Radiology and Director of the RF Research Facility and 7T Bioengineering Research Program at the University of Pittsburgh. He has worked predominantly on biological-electromagnetic interactions in magnetic resonance imaging and brain machine interface throughout his scientific career.  

In the last 9+ years, his lab’s work has focused on alleviating the radiofrequency (RF) inhomogeneity as well as RF safety concerns both of which are affected with variations in patients shapes/sizes/geometries with ultrahigh field human MRI. Most notably, through the work of 11 PhD students (candidates and graduates), several MS and BS students, 3 engineering staff and 2 post-docs, Dr. Ibrahim's lab has recently completed the design, construction, and testing of a new RF head coil system based on the Tic Tac Toe design, which he proposed ~10 years ago. The RF coil system achieves breakthrough results in terms of image quality/consistency for 7 Tesla neuroimaging and is currently being heavily utilized at the University of Pittsburgh in many translational studies focusing on major depressive disorder, schizophrenia, sickle cell, mild cognitive impairment, Alzheimer’s, normal aging, late life depression, dementia, psychosis, multiple sclerosis, neurocognitive disparities, and linking personality to health. Dr. Ibrahim's lab has active extensive collaborations with Department of Psychiatry, Alzheimer Disease Research Center, Department of Medicine, Department of Epidemiology, Department of Neurology, Department of Psychology, and Department of Anesthesiology at the University of Pittsburgh. Between 2023 and 2028, based on already funded studies, more than 5000 in-vivo 7 Tesla human scans are anticipated using the Tic Tac Toe RF coil system and its methodology of operation. These ongoing studies include 23 R01s, 4 K01s, 2 P01s, 1 U19, 3 R01-supplements, and 4 locally funded.  

Tamer S. Ibrahim, PhD
Radiofrequency Research Facility