SEE: Ultrasound, What You Haven’t Heard!

Abstract:

Ultrasound is ubiquitous in medicine. But what is ultrasound and how does it work? In this talk, we will go into the fundamentals of ultrasound, its use in the clinic and what new things are on the horizon. Ultrasound research on the Illinois campus covers a wide range of topics from improving current imaging performance to developing new image modes, the development of in body medical devices based on ultrasound communications and novel therapy approaches. This talk will discuss novel approaches to forming very thin acoustic beams for making images with unprecedented spatial resolution. Next we will discuss work using quantitative ultrasound imaging techniques for identifying breast cancer patients and their response to chemotherapy. In addition, for breast cancer imaging, we will discuss novel small electronic devices that are embedded in breast tumors that communicate with an ultrasound scanner and provide a unique identifier code called ultrasound identification (USID). We will finish the talk by discussing the use of ultrasound to communicate through soft tissues and an idea about how to improve current clinical practices using ultrasound communications with in body devices. 

Bio:

Michael L. Oelze was born in Hamilton, New Zealand, in 1971. He received the B.S. degree in physics and mathematics from Harding University, Searcy, AR, USA, in 1994, and the Ph.D. degree in physics from Ole miss, Oxford, MS, USA. From 2000 to 2002, he was a Post-Doctoral Researcher with the Bioacoustics Research Laboratory, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE), University of Illinois at Urbana– Champaign (UIUC), Urbana, IL, USA. From 2002 to 2004, he was an NIH Fellow conducting research in quantitative ultrasound techniques for biomedical ultrasound applications in cancer detection. In 2005, he joined the Faculty of ECE, UIUC. He is currently a Professor and the in ECE, a Health Innovator Professor in the Carle Illinois College of Medicine and the Frederick G. and Elizabeth H. Nearing Scholar, Grainger College of Engineering, an affiliate professor of Bioengineering, and a Beckman faculty. His research interests include biomedical ultrasound, quantitative ultrasound imaging for improving cancer diagnostics and monitoring therapy response, ultrasound tomography, ultrasound-based therapy, beamforming, ultrasound-based in body medical devices and coded excitation and communications using ultrasound. Dr. Oelze is currently a Fellow of the AIUM, a senior member of IEEE, and a fellow of ASA. He is a member of the Technical Program Committee of the IEEE Ultrasonics Symposium. He currently serves as an Associate Editor for IEEE Transactions on Ultrasonics, Ferroelectrics and Frequency Control, Ultrasonic Imaging, and IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering. He likes long walks on the beach and puppies.