Scientific Advisory Board

The Verasonics Scientific Advisory Board (SAB) is comprised of ultrasound research scientists who have a wide range of expertise in the fields of biomedical ultrasound and Materials Science/non-destructive evaluation. The SAB was formed to assist Verasonics’ leadership team in gaining insight and feedback on potential new product concepts from thought leaders in these fields.

Pierre Bélanger, Ph.D.
Pierre Bélanger received the Ph.D. degree from the NDT Research Group, Imperial College London, London, U.K., in 2010. He has been a Professor with the Department of Mechanical Engineering, École de Technologie Supérieure (ETS), Montreal, QC, Canada, since 2013. He is currently the Chairperson of the Olympus Industrial Research Chair on Ultrasonic Nondestructive Testing. He also supervises a group of 20 graduate students and has published over 80 peer-reviewed or conference papers. He collaborates with a wide range of companies from equipment manufacturers to service providers and large original equipment manufacturers in the automotive and aerospace industries. His current research interest focuses on novel applications of ultrasonic bulk and guided waves, as well as the development of innovative transducers.
Hong Chen, Ph.D.
Hong Chen is a world-leading scientist in developing innovative therapeutic ultrasound technologies. She is an Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering at Washington University in St. Louis. She earned her Ph.D. degree in Bioengineering from the University of Washington in 2011. She was a postdoctoral research scientist in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Columbia University from 2012 to 2015. Since joining Washington University in St. Louis in 2015, her research has been focused on developing ultrasound-brain interfacing techniques for the diagnosis and treatment of brain diseases and understanding brain functions. Her research has been funded by NIH BRAIN Initiative, NIBIB, NIA, NIMH, NCI, NSF, and DoD.

Dr Chen currently serves on Board of Directors for the International Society of Therapeutic Ultrasound, the IEEE International Ultrasonics technical committee, and Acoustical Society of America Biomedical Ultrasound technical committee. She has received numerous awards, including the Frederic Lizzi Early Career Award from the International Society of Therapeutic Ultrasound, the Young Investigator Award at the International Symposium on Focused Ultrasound, and Outstanding Teaching Award. 

Jessica Foley, Ph.D.
Chief Scientific Officer at the Focused Ultrasound Foundation based in Charlottesville, Virginia. As Chief Scientific Officer, Dr. Foley guides the strategy, development, and implementation of the scientific and research programs and activities within the Foundation. Additionally, she leads alliance-building efforts with external stakeholders including (but not limited to) governmental policymakers, regulatory agencies, and disease-specific foundations whose interests are complementary to those of the Foundation.
Caterina Gallippi, Ph.D.
Caterina leads the Gallippi Laboratory at UNC. She is a Professor in the Joint UNC, NCSU Department of Biomedical Engineering, Affiliated Professor in the NCSU Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, and Adjunct Professor in the UNC Department of Radiology. Dr. Gallippi earned a Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering from Duke University and a BSE in Electrical Engineering and Engineering Biology from Princeton University. Her research interests include interrogation of the mechanical properties of tissue, adaptive signal filtering, and multi-dimensional motion estimation.
Elisa Konofagou, Ph.D.
The Robert and Margaret Hariri Professor of Biomedical Engineering and Professor of Radiology, as well as Director of the Ultrasound and Elasticity Imaging Laboratory at Columbia University in New York City. Her main interests are in the development of novel elasticity imaging techniques and therapeutic ultrasound methods and more notably focused ultrasound in the brain for drug delivery and stimulation, myocardial elastography, electromechanical and pulse wave imaging, harmonic motion imaging with several clinical collaborations in the Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center and elsewhere. Dr. Konofagou is an Elected Fellow of the American Institute of Biological and Medical Engineering, a member of the IEEE in Engineering in Medicine and Biology, IEEE in Ultrasonics, Ferroelectrics and Frequency Control Society, the Acoustical Society of America and the American Institute of Ultrasound in Medicine. She has co-authored over 180 published articles in the aforementioned fields.
Jørgen Arendt Jensen, Ph.D.
Jørgen Arendt Jensen (M’93–SM’02–F’12) received the Master of Science degree in electrical engineering in 1985 and the Ph.D. degree in 1989, both from the Technical University of Denmark. He received the Dr.Techn. degree from the university in 1996. Since 1993, he has been a Full Professor of Biomedical Signal Processing with the Department of Health Technology, Technical University of Denmark. He has been head of the Center for Fast Ultrasound Imaging since its inauguration in 1998. He has published more than 500 journal and conference papers on signal processing and medical ultrasound and the book Estimation of Blood Velocities Using Ultrasound (Cambridge Univ. Press), 1996. He is also the developer and maintainer of the Field II simulation program. He has been a visiting scientist at Duke University, Stanford University, and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He was head of the Biomedical Engineering group from 2007 to 2010.

In 2003, he was one of the founders of the biomedical engineering program in Medicine and Technology, which is a joint degree program between the Technical University of Denmark and the Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences at the University of Copenhagen. The degree is one of the most sought-after engineering degrees in Denmark. He was chairman of the study board from 2003 to 2010 and Adjunct Professor with the University of Copenhagen from 2005 to 2010. He has given a number of short courses on simulation, synthetic aperture imaging, and flow estimation at international scientific conferences and teaches biomedical signal processing and medical imaging at the Technical University of Denmark. His research is centered around simulation of ultrasound imaging, synthetic aperture imaging, vector blood flow estimation, construction of ultrasound research systems, and 3-D super resolution imaging.

Dr. Jensen has given more than 60 invited talks at international meetings and received several awards for his research, most recently the Grand Solutions Prize from the Danish Minister of Science, the order of Dannebrog by her Majesty the Queen of Denmark, and the Rayleigh award from the IEEE UFFC.

Matthew O'Donnell, Ph.D.
Following undergraduate, graduate, and post-doctoral training at Notre Dame and Washington University in St. Louis, Dr. Matt O’Donnell joined General Electric Corporate Research and Development Center in Schenectady, NY in 1980, where he worked on medical electronics, including MRI and ultrasound imaging systems. In 1990, he moved to the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, MI where he held appointments in Electrical Engineering & Computer Science and in Biomedical Engineering. In 1998, he was named the Jerry W. and Carol L. Levin Professor of Engineering. From 1999-2006 he also served as Chair of the Biomedical Engineering Department. In 2006 he moved to the University of Washington in Seattle, WA where he was the Frank and Julie Jungers Dean of Engineering from 2006-2012.

Dr. O’Donnell is now Frank and Julie Jungers Dean Emeritus and a Professor of Bioengineering at the University of Washington. His most recent research has explored new imaging modalities, including elasticity imaging, in vivo microscopy, optoacoustic devices, photoacoustic contrast agents for molecular imaging and therapy, laser ultrasound systems, and catheter-based devices. He has won numerous awards, including the Distinguished Alumni Award from the University of Notre Dame, the Achievement and Rayleigh Awards from the IEEE-UFFC Society, the William J. Morlock Award for Excellence in Biomedical Technology from the IEEE-EMBS Society, and the IEEE Biomedical Engineering Award. He is a fellow of the IEEE and AIMBE and is an elected member of the Washington State Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering.

Jean Provost, Ph.D.
Jean Provost is the IVADO associate professor of engineering physics and biomedical engineering at Polytechnique Montréal, Canada. He obtained his Ph.D. from Columbia University in 2012 and was a Marie Curie Fellow and research scientist at Institut Langevin in Paris from 2012 to 2018. His research focuses on the development of novel ultrasound technologies, from the design of ultrasound probes, sequences, and processing pipelines toward validation in animal models and feasibility studies in humans, with a focus on neurodegenerative and cardiovascular diseases using 3D ultrafast ultrasound imaging and dynamic ultrasound localization microscopy. 

Mikhail Shapiro, Ph.D.
Dr. Shapiro heads the Shapiro Laboratory at the California Institute of Technology. The Shapiro Lab develops bimolecular contrast agents, sensors, and actuators to enable non-invasive imaging and control of cellular function for basic biology and cell-based diagnostics and therapeutics. Dr. Shapiro is a Professor of Chemical Engineering and Medical Engineering, an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Director of the Center for Molecular and Cellular Medicine at Caltech.
Pengfei Song, Ph.D.
Dr. Song is an Assistant Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Bioengineering, Beckman Institute, and College of Medicine at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. He is the principal investigator of the Song Lab which develops novel ultrasound imaging technologies in the domains of super-resolution ultrasound, shear wave elastography, deep learning-based signal processing, functional ultrasound, and 3D ultrafast imaging. Dr. Song has published over 80 peer-reviewed journal papers. He holds several patents that have been licensed and commercialized by major ultrasound companies and used worldwide in the clinic. Dr. Song is a recipient of the NIH K99/R00 Pathway to Independence Award, the NSF CAREER Award, and the NIH/NIBIB Trailblazer Award. He is an elected Fellow of the American Institute of Ultrasound in Medicine, a Senior Member of the National Academy of Inventors, and a Senior Member of IEEE.
Dean Ta, Ph.D.
Professor in the Department of Electronic Engineering at Fudan University, Shanghai, China. Dr. Ta is also Adjunct Professor at the University of Alberta in Canada. His research interests include biomedical ultrasound, medical signal and image processing, and generation and propagation of ultrasonic waves and their applications in medicine and NDT/NDE.
Mickael Tanter, Ph.D.
Mickael Tanter is the Director at Physics for Medicine in Paris, France, a world-leading academic laboratory in biomedical ultrasound. Professor Tanter and his team are pioneers of ultrafast ultrasound and have developed many medical applications – including shear wave elastography, functional ultrasound imaging and ultrasound localization microscopy – from proof-of-concept studies to clinical translation. His laboratory develops new technologies for imaging and therapeutic purposes, addressing three major fields of medicine: cancer, cardiovascular diseases and neuroscience. Professor Tanter is also co-founder of several medical technology companies including Supersonic Imagine, CardiaWave and Iconeus. He was elected member of the European Academy of Science.
Shin-ichiro Umemura, Ph.D.
Dr. Umemura is Professor Emeritus, as well as a Research Scientist of Biomedical Engineering at Tohoku University. His research interests are in biomedical ultrasonics, especially therapeutic ultrasound enhanced by cavitation and microbubbles including sonodynamic therapy. They are extended to ultrasonic imaging with emphasis on monitoring the noninvasive therapeutic processes. He was a Professor of Electrical and Biomedical Engineering at Tohoku University, from 2007 to 2018 and from 2008 to 2018, respectively.

Dr. Umemura also has both industry and medical academia experiences; he was a member of Hitachi’s R&D team, and a Professor in the Department of Human Healthcare at Kyoto University, from 1980 to 2005 and from 2005 to 2006, respectively. He is an IEEE Fellow since 2000, a Fellow of the Acoustical Society of America since 2009, and a Fry Honorary Fellow of the International Society of Therapeutic Ultrasound since 2010.

Paul Wilcox, Ph.D.
Professor of Dynamics and Head of Department of Mechanical Engineering (2015-2018) at University of Bristol in the United Kingdom. Dr. Wilcox’s research includes elastodynamic wave propagation and scattering, ultrasonic arrays, imaging, signal processing, structural health monitoring and non-destructive testing. Dr. Wilcox lead the development of University of Bristol’s BRAIN software for advanced NDE ultrasonic post-processing analysis.

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