Dr Geoff Dougherty

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2009 Fulbright Senior Scholar

Media profile

“Modern scientific imaging plays an exciting and critical role in many fields, especially in medicine, where image analysis and pattern recognition have become crucial to both diagnosis and treatment.”

Dr Geoff Dougherty, a Professor in Applied Physics and Medical Imaging at the California State University Channel Islands, has been awarded a Fulbright Senior Scholarship from the Australian-American Fulbright Commission to undertake six months research at Queensland University of Technology (QUT), Brisbane.

Geoff will use his Fulbright to work with QUT’s Professor Jim Pope, to use Magnetic Resonance Imaging to improve the diagnosis and treatment of the joint disease osteoarthritis and the bone disease osteoporosis.

“Clinical diagnosis of osteoarthritis currently relies largely on radiological assessment and/or self-assessment of pain and disability experienced by patients. Pain and disability are unreliable indicators of the extent of the disease: some individuals with radiographically advanced joint degeneration show minimal pain,” Dr Dougherty said.

“Radiological assessment, while relatively objective, is limited to the advanced stages of the disease. A measure that is less subjective, and more sensitive would be beneficial to both medical practitioners and patients.”

Dr Dougherty will develop a measure that will be able to show the severity of osteoarthritis based on how collagen fibres are aligned in cartilage and also will examine the texture of bones and cartilage to facilitate the early recognition and diagnosis of osteoporosis.

While in Australia, Geoff will also be teaching undergraduate students at QUT and will give seminars to regional organisations.

Geoff has a BSc Honors in Physics from Manchester University, a Postgraduate Certificate in Education from Leeds University and a PhD in Biomedical Physics from Keele University. He has won numerous grants from sources including the Wellcome Trust, Oxford Brookes University, Medical Research Council, the Skin Disease Research Fund and the National Advisory Board (UK).  He has published widely in academic journals, and his latest book on image analysis (“Digital Image Processing for Medical Applications”, Cambridge University Press, 2009) has just been released.

Geoff is one of 19 American Fulbright Scholars, travelling to Australia in 2009/2010.