Anthony E. Samir, MBBCH
Director of CURT and Service Chief,Body Ultrasound
Department of Radiology/Massachusetts General Hospital
Assistant Professor at Harvard Medical School
Dr. Anthony Samir (he/him/his) is an Assistant Professor at Harvard Medical School, and a Diagnostic and Interventional Radiologist at the Massachusetts General Hospital, where he serves as Service Chief for Body Ultrasound Imaging Services. He trained as a MD general practitioner in South Africa, followed by advanced post-graduate training in Internal Medicine and Surgery in New Zealand and Australia, and a five year-residency in Diagnostic and Interventional Radiology in Australia. He completed additional training in medical informatics, followed by two one year subspecialty fellowships in Abdominal Imaging and Interventional Radiology at the Massachusetts General Hospital. He joined the faculty of MGH Radiology and Harvard Medical School in 2006, and then completed a Masters degree in Public Health at the Harvard School of Public Health, with a concentration in the techniques and methods to measure the effectiveness of technology in healthcare settings.
In addition to actively seeing patients, Dr. Samir currently works in several domains: (1) Imaging biomarker development and clinical trials: Dr. Samir is an internationally recognized expert in the field of non-invasive diffuse liver disease staging. His research group pioneered widely-used diagnostic assessments for liver fibrosis, and he currently chairs the 32-member clinical subcommittee of the Radiological Society of North America concerned with ultrasonic liver fibrosis staging. Dr. Samir has led two major prospective clinical trials of ultrasound elastography for liver disease and thyroid disease, and is an author of the Uniform Protocol for Imaging in Clinical Trials for ultrasound elastography. (2) Mentorship and education: Dr. Samir is co-editor of Abdominal imaging, a widely used two-volume subspecialty reference text, and is the author or co-author of more than 20 educational book chapters. He has mentored more than thirty post-doctoral fellows, most of whom have gone on to successful academic and clinical careers. (3) Technology development: Dr. Samir co-founded the MGH Clinical Ultrasound Research Laboratory and the MGH/MIT Center for Ultrasound Research & Translation, a joint center focused on rapid innovation and tight integration of engineering and iterative clinical refinement. In these leadership roles, together with collaborators, he has developed a number of medical imaging and image-guided interventional technologies, and has acquired extensive experience innovating successfully in partnership with other academic groups and industry. He has a strong interest in clinical applications and integration of predictive analytics and machine learning models into medical devices. He has received numerous collaborative foundation and government grants and industry funding and support from almost every major medical device company. His awards include the Far Eastern Economic Review Young Inventors Prize, the Siemens Australia Research prize, and the ABC Television Inventor’s Prize.
Elizabeth Sands, JD
Administrative Manager at CURT
Department of Radiology at Massachusetts General Hospital
Clinical Translational Research Team
Theodore Pierce, MD
Director of Clinical Translational Research Program at CURT, Ultrasound Service Chief
Department of Radiology at Massachusetts General Hospital
Assistant Professor at Harvard Medical School
After receiving a Bachelor of Science in physics from Boston College and medical doctorate from Duke University School of Medicine, Dr. Theodore Pierce (he/him/his) completed diagnostic radiology residency, a cardiovascular imaging focused year, and an abdominal imaging fellowship at the Massachusetts General Hospital. With the support of the 2020 ARRS Scholar award, Dr. Pierce completed the Program in Clinical Effectiveness and MPH degree at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Dr. Pierce is currently an Assistant Professor of Radiology at Harvard University, an abdominal radiologist at MGH, and the director of the clinical translational research program at the Center for Ultrasound Research and Translation. His work focuses on the translation of cutting-edge ultrasound technology from conception to clinical practice including quantitative ultrasound biomarkers of metabolic liver disease, conformable ultrasound transducers, ultrasound guided surgical robotics, novel ultrasound pulse sequences, and artificial intelligence image analytics. Dr. Pierce is excited to bring this experience to the director of clinical translational research role to further the department’s mission of clinical excellence, academic distinction, and leading in ultrasound practice.
Qian Li, MD
Director of the MGH-China Translational Ultrasound at CURT
Chief of the Department of Ultrasound, Shenzhen University General Hospital, in Shenzhen, China.
Qian Li received his MD degree from Peking University Health Science Center in Beijing, China, and completed his resident and fellow training in the Department of Radiology at Peking University First Hospital. In 2010, he joined the Center for Ultrasound Research & Translation (CURT), at Massachusetts General Hospital for nealy 2 years as a post doc fellow, and pursued his interests in thyroid, liver, and prostate sonoelastography. In 2015, Dr. Li re-joined the CURT to continue his research interests in the areas of (1) fusion-guided biopsy imaging in prostate cancer, (2) imaging marker development in machine perfused donor liver, and (3) machine learning assisted ultrasound diagnosis. In addition to conducting his research, Dr. Li began working with and coaching the Chinese post docs at the CURT. He has been instrumental in formalizing the CURT training program for Chinese post docs and assumed the role of Director of the MGH-China Translational Ultrasound Research Training Program since 2016.
Sai Dhanush Reddy Jeggari, MBBS
Research Fellow
Department of Radiology at Massachusetts General Hospital
Dr. Dhanush Reddy (he/him/his), MBBS, is our newest research fellow. He graduated from Osmania Medical College in Hyderabad, India. He is actively working with ultrasound attenuation imaging, ultrasound elastography quality improvement, and the development of wearable ultrasound devices. When not in the lab, he enjoys pursuing culinary adventures and globe-trotting. He loves the rich history and vibrant culture that Boston offers. Dhanush joined the CURT team in August 2023 and continues to explore these fascinating avenues of research. He ultimately wants to pursue a residency in Radiology.
Xiaohong Wang, MBBS, MS
Research Fellow
Department of Radiology at Massachusetts General Hospital
Dr. Xiaohong Wang (she/her/hers), MBBS, MS, is a research fellow at CURT, specializing in the translation of medical device research, particularly in medical ultrasound. Before joining CURT, Dr. Wang worked in the MedTech industry, where she managed a dozen portfolio companies, applying her clinical and regulatory expertise to 1) navigate the complexities of product commercialization and 2) optimize integrated clinical development plans for various products, including portable imaging devices, cardiovascular implants, and surgical robots. She also contributed to early-stage innovation and business development, fostering collaborations within the MedTech sector. This experience provided her with valuable insights into product development, commercialization, and corporate venturing.
Dr. Wang began her career as a radiology resident and completed fellowship training at Huashan Hospital, Fudan University, Shanghai, China, where she advanced the clinical applications of elastography and contrast-enhanced ultrasound in liver, breast, cardiovascular, and musculoskeletal diseases. In 2019, she joined CURT as a postdoctoral fellow for two years, focusing on thyroid, liver, and breast diseases. With over a decade of experience in clinical practice, ultrasound research, and industry involvement, Dr. Wang rejoined CURT in 2024 to continue her passion for ultrasound innovation, collaborating with cross-functional teams and addressing unique challenges in clinical applications.
Mary Waugh
Clinical Research Coordinator
Department of Radiology at Massachusetts General Hospital
Mary Waugh (she/her/hers), BS, is a Clinical Research Coordinator at CURT. She recently graduated from UC San Diego with Bachelor of Science in Human Biology and is eager to soon further her career in healthcare by applying her knowledge in medical school. Her work includes overseeing clinical trials by ensuring compliance, coordinating patient recruitment, and managing data to support innovative outcomes in ultrasound imaging. Her interests involve improving ultrasound-guided vascular access using artificial intelligence, evaluating novel shear wave elastography techniques, and promoting evidence-based research around gymnastics-specific injuries.
Samay Prakash
Research Fellow
Department of Radiology at Massachusetts General Hospital
Samay completed his MBBS from the University of Nottingham in 2023, followed by an intern year at the University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust. Having joined CURT in December 2024, he is currently involved in a number of projects in collaborating with both senior clinicians and engineers. He hopes to develop his research skillset further whilst pursuing his goal in becoming a clinical radiologist.
Machine Learning Team
Peng Guo, PhD
Machine Learning Team Lead
Department of Radiology at Massachusetts General Hospital
In July 2022, Peng Guo, PhD (he/him/his) brings a wealth of expertise to the role as the Machine Learning Team Lead at the Center of Ultrasound and Research Translation (CURT), having spent years as a postdoctoral researcher at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) from 2018 to 2022. Before joining CURT he was working as a postdoctoral researcher at the Lister Hill National Center for Biomedical Communications (LHNCBC), National Library of Medicine (NLM). Now, at CURT, he leads a dynamic team focused on advancing machine learning and artificial intelligence methods covering image classification, segmentation, and deep learning-based image information retrieval in the context of ultrasound imaging. His research interests span semi/self-supervised learning, data-centric AI, federated learning, and integrating human-in-the-loop principles into deep learning models. He actively contributes to the scientific community through conferences and collaborations, aiming to push the boundaries of what’s achievable at the nexus of artificial intelligence and healthcare.
Eugene Cheah, MS
Clinical Data Engineer at CURT
Department of Radiology at Massachusetts General Hospital
Eugene Cheah (he/him/his) began his journey at Massachusetts General Hospital as an intern in September 2018 and quickly evolved into a full-time Translational Researcher as a Clinical Data Engineer in July 2019. With a deep-rooted passion for data-driven healthcare advancements, Eugene has dedicated his career to making a meaningful impact on patient care. As a Clinical Data Engineer, he has spearheaded innovative projects such as the Automated Data Project (ADP), which streamlines data extraction from hospital databases, and the development of machine learning models for various research initiatives. His role also extends to Systems Administration, where he manages data storage, backup protocols, and research apparatus procurement. Eugene is driven by a commitment to bridge the gap between data and healthcare outcomes, collaborating with interdisciplinary teams to shape the future of healthcare through data-driven innovations.
Abder-Rahman Ali, PhD
Research Fellow
Department of Radiology at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School
Website: https://abder.mgh.harvard.edu
Twitter: https://twitter.com/abderhasan
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/drabder/
GitHub: https://github.com/abderhasan
Abder-Rahman Ali, PhD (he/him/his), is a Machine Learning researcher who comes from computer science and software engineering backgrounds. He joined CURT in January 2022. His research involves leveraging machine/deep learning and image processing to improve the diagnosis of liver disease using ultrasound imaging. His interest in medical imaging began during his MSc Software Engineering degree at DePaul University where he worked on content-based image retrieval (CBIR) systems and on bridging the gap between human and computer interpretation of similarity in medical imaging. This was followed by an internship at RWTH Aachen University where he worked on building a joint database for dermoscopic images that would serve as a standard reference for researchers. He then worked as a researcher at Clermont Auvergne University where he conducted research on liver lesion segmentation from MRI and medical ultrasound imaging using fuzzy logic-based techniques. Eventually, he earned his Ph.D in Computing Science from the University of Stirling where he worked on various topics that encompassed the medical image analysis standard pipeline, and were mainly geared towards melanoma detection in particular.
Guangyi Patrick Zhang, PhD
Research Fellow
Department of Radiology at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School
Guangyi (Patrick) Zhang (he/him/his) joined CURT as a research fellow in AI for liver diseases in September 2023. Prior to this, he delved into language models for cancer vaccines design at the University of Toronto. He earned his Ph.D. in AI from Queen’s University in December 2022, during which he first-authored 10 papers with around 300 citations. Besides, he has served as a reviewer for top-tier AI venues and as an area chair for the AAAI workshop. Beyond the academic achievements, he won the 2nd place in the EPiC’23 Coding Competition.
Niam Abeysiriwardena
Machine Learning Engineer
Department of Radiology at Massachusetts General Hospital
Niam (he/him/his) joined CURT in July of 2021 as a Machine Learning Research Engineer. He completed his Bachelor’s degrees in Neuroscience and Computer Science at Lake Forest College in 2020, and his Master’s in Machine Learning at Georgia Tech in 2022. Niam has previously worked on imaging approaches to tracking environmental toxins, and he worked at the wet lab level in developing a yeast model for Parkinson’s Disease as an undergraduate research fellow of the Parkinson’s Foundation. Currently, he specializes in using Machine Learning to develop Gynecological Ultrasound technologies.
Acoustics Team
Marko Jakovljevic, PhD
Acoustics Team Lead at CURT, Instructor
Department of Radiology at Massachusetts General Hospital
Marko Jakovljevic (he/him/his), an instructor, received his B.S. degree from University of Texas at Austin (2009), and his Ph.D. from Duke University under Dr. Trahey (2015). He worked as a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Department of Radiology, Stanford School of Medicine under Dr. Dahl until July, 2022, when he joined the Center for Ultrasound Research and Translation at Massachusetts General Hospital. His interests include synthetic aperture and frequency-domain beamforming, and adaptive filters as applied in medical ultrasound. At CURT, he is developing beamforming methods for new opto-acoustic modalities including Non-Contact Laser Ultrasound (NCLUS) in collaboration with the MIT Lincoln Laboratory. He is also actively collaborating with researchers in seismic imaging and synthetic aperture radar (SAR) to develop efficient beamforming methods for point-of-care and handheld ultrasound devices.
Scott Schoen Jr, PhD
Instructor
Department of Radiology at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School
Scott Schoen Jr (he/him/his) is an instructor at CURT, prior to which he received his PhD from Georgia Tech in Atlanta, GA, MSE from the University of Texas at Austin, and BS from Tufts University in Medford, MA. Since joining CURT in 2021, Scott has been working on improving the diagnostic utility of ultrasound images through efficient aberration correction and novel applications of ultrasound contrast. His other research interests include super-resolution ultrasound, machine learning, and 2D arrays for volumetric imaging, particularly towards the enhancement of emerging point-of-care ultrasound capabilities.
Ion Candel, PhD
Research Fellow
Department of Radiology at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School
Ion Candel, PhD., has an applied signal processing background. After obtaining his Bachelor’s Degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Pitesti, Romania, he obtained his Master’s and Doctorate Degrees in Applied Signal Processing from the University of Grenoble Alpes, France in 2010 and 2014 respectively.
He held several positions in both academic establishments and companies, where he was involved in developing innovative signal and data processing algorithms, as well as publishing a series of scientific papers. His research interests include improving the quality of ultrasound images using innovative signal processing techniques, prototyping, as well as translating highly innovative technologies to market.
Maryam Dadgar, PhD
Research Fellow
Department of Radiology at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School
Maryam Dadgar, PhD (she/her/hers) is a Research Fellow at CURT. She earned her PhD in Medical Biophysics / Biomedical Engineering from the University of Toronto, where she developed a 2D ultrasound phased-array transducer system for the treatment of deep vein thrombosis (DVT). Through her research, she gained hands-on experience in simulating and constructing 2D transducer arrays. She also worked with industry standards, gaining expertise in IEC regulations and risk management for medical device development.
Since joining CURT in 2025, Maryam has been working on improving diagnostic ultrasound imaging through advanced signal processing and beamforming techniques. She is also involved in refining ultrasound microvascular imaging. Her interests extend to contrast-enhanced ultrasound imaging, super-resolution imaging, and applying machine learning to push the boundaries of ultrasound technology in clinical practice.
Outside of research, Maryam is passionate about the arts. She enjoys painting, baking, cooking, and crafting, and she is an avid swimmer.