MICCAI Society Welcomes New Board Members. Heartfelt Gratitude to Outgoing Directors.

Friday 31st January 2025

The MICCAI Society is pleased to welcome Stamatia (Matina) Giannarou, Junzhou Huang and Mohammad Yaqub to its Board of Directors. They will begin their four-year terms on February 1, 2025.

"On behalf of the entire Society, I am thrilled to welcome you to our Board of Directors,” said Marius George Linguraru, President. “We look forward to leveraging your unique perspectives, expertise, and leadership to ensure the MICCAI Society thrives as the principal, diverse, international forum for research, education and scientific excellence in medical image computing and computer assisted intervention."

Each year, the MICCAI Society welcomes three new members to its Board of Directors. These positions consist of one member-elected position, one board-elected position and one being the Chair of an upcoming MICCAI conference.

About our new Board Members

Stamatia (Matina) Giannarou

Stamatia (Matina) Giannarou, PhD, MEng, MSc, is a Royal Society University Research Fellow and Senior Lecturer in Surgical Cancer Technology and Imaging at the Hamlyn Centre for Robotic Surgery at Imperial College London. Her research focuses on developing computer vision and AI techniques for intraoperative navigation and real-time tissue characterization during minimally invasive and robot-assisted operations.

Giannarou has been an active member of the MICCAI Society since 2009. She has been an Area Chair for MICCAI conferences since 2016 and was a Program Chair on the MICCAI 2024 Organizing Committee. She has also been an active member of IPCAI and has been a General Chair for IPCAI since 2022. She has received numerous honors and awards, including Outstanding Paper Award at MICCAI 2021 (AE-CAI) and “The President’s Award for Outstanding Early Career Researcher 2017” at Imperial College London. Her work has been published in more than 50 peer-reviewed publications and produced 4 patents. Giannarou was elected by the members of the MICCAI Society board to join as a Director.

Junzhou Huang

Junzhou Huang, PhD, MS, BE, is the Jenkins Garrett Professor in the Computer Science and Engineering department at the University of Texas at Arlington and a fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering. His research focuses on developing novel machine learning algorithms that leverage biomedical imaging data to address clinical and healthcare challenges, facilitating knowledge discovery and decision support. His work has been published in more than 100 journal publications and over 100 conference publications.

Huang has been active with the MICCAI Society since presenting a paper at MICCAI 2008 and has served as a MICCAI reviewer since 2013 and Area Chair in multiple years. He received the Young Scientist Award at MICCAI 2010 and MICCAI 2015 and was a finalist at MICCAI 2011 and MICCAI 2014. He is also actively involved in ICML and NeurIPS conferences. He was elected by the MICCAI membership to join the board as a Director.

Mohammad Yaqub

Mohammad Yaqub, PhD, is an Associate Professor at Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence (MBZUAI), Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates (UAE). Yaqub leads the BioMedIA group at MBZUAI. He is also an honorary research fellow at the Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences (NDCN), University of Oxford. He completed his PhD in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Oxford. His domain knowledge is Artificial Intelligence (AI), machine learning, and biomedical health and image analysis. He has published over 80 peer-reviewed articles, has 6 patents, co-edited 2 books, and secured many national and international grant funding. Yaqub is the General Chair for MICCAI 2026, which will be held in Abu Dhabi, UAE.

Yaqub’s journey with the MICCAI Society started more than 15 years ago as a PhD student. He has attended several MICCAI conferences and was an active member of the organizing committees for MICCAI 2023, 2024 and 2025 as Sponsorship Co-Chair. In the past, he has also served as a reviewer, mentor, and speaker at different MICCAI-related activities. Yaqub and his team have won MICCAI-related awards, such as the Best Paper award in a workshop at MICCAI 2022, At MICCAI 2024, one of his papers was nominated for the Best Paper Award and Young Scientist Award.

We Sincerely Thank our Outgoing Board Members

We extend our heartfelt gratitude to three outgoing board members, Caroline Essert, Le Lu, and Tanveer Syeda-Mahmood, who completed their terms on January 31, 2025.

"Thank you for your unwavering dedication and exemplary service over the past four years," said Linguraru. “Your vision, leadership, and commitment have been invaluable in advancing our mission and nurturing our community. We wish you all the best in your future endeavors and know that your legacy will inspire us to continue our important work."

Caroline Essert

Caroline Essert joined the board in 2019 and was elected President in 2022. She served as Co-Program Chair of MICCAI 2019 and General Co-Chair of MICCAI 2021. Under Prof. Essert’s leadership, the Society successfully navigated the challenges of holding virtual conferences and expanded year-round initiatives such as webinars, mentorship programs and endorsed events. Deeply committed to diversity, she fostered broader global engagement by doubling travel grants, supporting the first MICCAI conference in Africa and reinforcing the MICCAI Code of Conduct. She also worked to streamline organizational processes, solidifying the MICCAI Society as a global leader.

Le Lu

Le Lu became a director of the MICCAI Society in 2021. He was Chair of the Industry Working Group, establishing the Industry Talk webinar series which attracts record attendance. He also worked with the Sponsorship Chairs of MICCAI 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024 to generate important financial support from corporate sponsors.

Tanveer Syeda-Mahmood

Tanveer Syeda-Mahmood joined the board in 2021 and chaired the Clinical Working Group which established the Clinical Translation Talk Series. She was General Co-Chair of MICCAI 2023. She spear-headed initiatives that increased clinician involvement such as clinical workshops at MICCAI conferences, participated on MICCAI-RSNA panels and introduced clinical chairs and sessions at MICCAI 2023. In 2022, Syeda-Mahmood was recognized as a MICCAI Fellow for outstanding research and innovations in medical image analysis and bioinformatics.