I started at WPI as an Assistant Professor in August of 1986 after graduating from Colorado State University. My research focus has been electromagnetic and acoustic nondestructive evaluation (NDE), and for the past 15 years instrumentation for Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI). As director of the Center for Imaging and Sensing (CIS), I have concentrated on the exploration of energy/media interactions with emphasis on inspecting critical industrial materials and biological structures. CIS has developed NDE sensing technology as well as radiofrequency (RF) coils and electronic circuits for pre-clinical and clinical MR scanners. Our research has resulted in a number of application-specific RF coils and resonators capable of exciting the nuclei inside a biological region of interest and then obtaining signal responses emitted by these nuclei as they undergo reorientation in the presence of strong static and gradient magnetic fields. The need for RF coils in MRI is highly diverse, ranging from large volume coils for full-body imaging, over single- and multi-channel head coils for cranial imaging, to array coils for neck, breast, wrist, and ankle imaging.
