Reinhold Ludwig

Biography

Education: MS University of Wuppertal 1983 PhD Colorado State University 1986 I came to WPI over 20 years ago after graduating from Colorado State University. My research includes electromagnetic and acoustic nondestructive evaluation (NDE), and for the past 15 years instrumentation for Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI). As director of the RF Electronics and Medical Imaging Laboratory, I focus on designing radiofrequency (RF) coils and electronic circuits for pre-clinical (animal) and clinical (human) MR scanners. My interest is the design of application-specific RF coils and resonators to excite the nuclei inside a biological region of interest and then obtain signal responses emitted by these nuclei as they undergo reorientation in the presence of strong static and gradient magnetic fields. The needs for RF coils in MRI are 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. Our most recent work has focused on multi-channel coils for bilateral female breast imaging and prostate imaging in 1.5T and 3T clinical MR scanners. The goal of our research is to increase the signal to noise performance and field uniformity of these RF coils in an effort to render high-resolution images that assist radiologists in their diagnoses.

Research Interest

Electromagnetic and acoustic Nondestructive Evaluation (NDE); Electromagnetic/ acoustic sensors; Electromechanical device modeling; Piezoelectric array transducers; Optimization methods for Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI)