Celebrating the Accomplishments of Women at UCSF Radiology

It's always a good time of year to recognize and celebrate the many women who contribute their talent and expertise to the UC San Francisco Department of Radiology and Biomedical Imaging. During Women's History Month (and every month), we invite you to peruse the bios and recent projects of a selection of our faculty and trainees.

Research Faculty

Some of the incredible women in science on our research faculty include:

Melanie Morrison, PhD, an assistant professor in residence at UCSF Radiology and the lead investigator of the Morrison Lab, which is "dedicated to advancing neuromodulation therapies for patients with neuropsychiatric conditions." Dr. Morrison joined the faculty in the neuroimaging research group in December 2022.

Duygu Tosun-Tugut, PhD, an associate professor at UCSF Radiology and the founding director of Medical Imaging Informatics and Artificial Intelligence at the San Francisco Veterans Affairs Medical Center. In December 2022, Dr. Tosun-Turgut was named a Distinguished Investigator by the Academy for Radiology & Biomedical Imaging Research.

Olga Tymofiyeva, PhD, is an associate professor and is currently the principal investigator of an NIH-funded study of brain plasticity in adolescents undergoing a mindfulness meditation training, titled the "BrainChange" study. Here's a look at Dr. Tymofiyeva's research into adolescent depression.

Pavithra Viswanath, PhD, is an associate professor at UCSF Radiology and an investigator in the Cancer Metabolic Imaging and Therapy Lab, which aims to "harness insights from tumor genetics, epigenetics and biology to drive the preclinical development of novel, translational metabolic imaging biomarkers."

Myriam Chaumeil, PhD, is an associate professor in residence in the departments of physical therapy and rehabilitation science and radiology. Learn about Dr. Chaumeil's recent research in this presentation titled, "Let's take our brain for a spin!"

Nola Hylton, PhD, is a professor and the director of the Breast Imaging Research Group, which aims "to advance breast imaging-based approaches for breast cancer diagnosis, leading to earlier detection, reduction of disease recurrence and improved survival."

Galateia Kazakia, PhD, is an associate professor in residence and director of the Bone Quality Research Lab, where the team works to research the "characterization of bone quality in disease states affecting the skeleton using both in-vivo and ex-vivo high resolution imaging techniques."

Sharmila Majumdar, PhD, a professor and the vice chair for research at UCSF Radiology. She is also the director of the Musculoskeletal Research Group and the co-executive director and scientific director of the UCSF Center for Intelligent Imaging (UCSF ci2). In 2022, Dr. Majumdar was named one of the top female scientists in the U.S.

Clinical Faculty

Women clinical faculty members balance busy practices in clinical sections where they teach trainees, care for patients, and participate in conferences and tumor boards. Many clinical faculty are also actively engaged in research.

Hailey Choi, MD, an assistant professor of clinical radiology in the abdominal imaging and ultrasound sub-specialties. Dr. Choi was recently named a fellow of the Society of Radiologists in Ultrasound (SRU) and was featured in a member profile by the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA).

Kayla Cort, DO joined UCSF Pediatric Radiology in 2022 as an assistant professor. She was featured in a recent Spotlight.

Kimberly Kallianos, MD is the CT modality director. She is part of a UCSF ci2 team that is developing a fully automatic, end-to-end deep learning model for Coronary Artery Calcium scoring, an important risk predictor for Coronary Artery Disease.

Yi Li, MD, is an assistant professor and the director of the Neuroradiology Fellowship Program. Dr. Li, who was featured in this spotlight on our website, is also an active researcher and mentor.

Maggie Chung, MD, is the newest member of our breast imaging section, and conducts research on the use of neural networks in imaging.

Shital Gandhi, MBBS, is an assistant professor and one of the leaders of a new Emergency Radiology section established in 2022 at ZSFG to provide after-hours faculty coverage for imaging exams. 

Yingbing Wang, MD joined the Molecular Imaging & Therapeutics section in November as an associate professor. Her expertise spans conventional single photon nuclear medicine, positron emission tomography, nuclear cardiology, and nuclear therapies.

Orit Glenn, MD, is professor of clinical radiology with a research focus on neonatal imaging. She is the recipient of the 2022 ASNR Women in Leadership Award.

Soonmee Cha, MD, is our Residency Director and received the 2022 UCSF Neurosurgery Diane D. Ralston Award for outstanding teaching.

Jane Wang, MD, the chief of abdominal imaging and T32 Program associate director, was recently named to the Society of Abdominal Radiology Board of Directors. 

Trainees

Amanda Baker, MD is a fellow in UCSF Neurointerventional Radiology. In 2022 she led a structured literature review with her peers regarding parental leave policies in neurointerventional surgery and related arenas. 

Upasana Upadhyay Bharadwaj, MBBS, a T32 scholar, is currently researching applications of artificial intelligence to address chronic low back pain and knee osteoarthritis, as described in this spotlight. Dr. Bharadwaj's work was highlighted during the RSNA annual meeting.

Xiao Wu, MD, UCSF Radiology resident, graduated from Yale University School of Medicine in 2020. Dr. Wu was on a panel about diversity, equity and inclusion in radiology at the 2022 RSNA annual meeting and was featured in Aunt Minnie for a study she led on diversity in radiology.

We hope you enjoyed learning about some of the many women at UCSF Radiology who are making history in the field! We are incredibly proud of all our women faculty, staff, fellows and trainees.