PhD Position in Advanced Brain PET Image Reconstruction

Offer Description

• Data curation: retrospective collection, quality control, and preprocessing of approximately 500 static and dynamic brain PET/MR datasets acquired UZ Leuven during the last 10 years.
• Open data infrastructure: pseudonymisation and conversion of raw listmode data into open, standardized formats.
• GPU software development: design and optimization of high-performance, open-source time-of-flight (TOF) listmode forward and back-projectors for integration into ML frameworks such as PyTorch, building on the existing parallelproj library.
• Method evaluation: critical assessment of reconstruction algorithms developed across all partner institutions, in close collaboration with clinical and kinetic modelling experts at UZ Leuven.
• Challenge organisation: planning and execution of an open international brain PET reconstruction challenge, including data sharing agreements, automatic evaluation pipelines, and platform setup.
• Dissemination: presentation of results at international conferences and publication in peer-reviewed journals.

Qualifications

• Master's degree (or equivalent) in Engineering, Physics, Computer Science, Mathematics, or a closely related field, obtained before the start date.
• Solid programming skills in Python (or other high-level languages) and experience with scientific computing libraries (e.g., NumPy, PyTorch).
• Strong mathematical background in linear algebra, optimization, and probability/statistics.
• Very good written and spoken English.
• Enthusiasm for interdisciplinary research at the interface of medical imaging and machine learning.
• High intrinsic motivation.
• Prior experience with medical image reconstruction or emission tomography.
• Experience in efficient handling of large research data sets.
• Knowledge of variational methods, convex optimization, or iterative algorithms for inverse problems.
• Experience with open-source software development and version control (Git).
• Exposure to deep learning methods.
• Direct access to state-of-the-art clinical PET infrastructure and clinical experts at UZ Leuven.
• High-performance GPU computing resources.
• Participation in international conferences and project workshops (Leuven, Munich, Graz).
• Short-term research exchanges at partner institutions in Graz (Austria) and Munich (Germany).
• A fully funded 4-year PhD position within a stimulating, internationally connected research environment.
• A vibrant, international academic community in Leuven — a historic university city in the heart of Europe.