MICCAI Society Welcomes New Board Members and Secretary, and Thanks Outgoing Directors

Sunday 1st February 2026

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.  

We are pleased to announce that Maria A. Zuluaga, Antonio R. Porras and Jichao Zhao will join its Board of Directors on February 1, 2026 for a four-year term. We also warmly congratulate Stefanie Speidel as our new Board Secretary, extending her term by three years.

Marius George Linguraru, President, expressed his enthusiasm saying, “I really look forward to working with Maria, Antonio and Jichao as new members of the MICCAI Society’s Board of Directors. Representing diverse regions across the globe, their perspectives and expertise will be fresh and invaluable as we work together to ensure the MICCAI Society continues to lead the research, education, and scientific excellence in medical image computing and computer-assisted interventions.”

About the new Board Members

Maria A. Zuluaga

Maria A. Zuluaga, PhD, is Professor (Classe 2) in the Data Science department at EURECOM in France and a Visiting Senior Lecturer in the School of Biomedical Engineering & Imaging Sciences at King’s College London in the UK. Her research focuses on developing novel machine learning methods from multi-modal data that can be safely applied to advance healthcare research and improve clinical practice, addressing questions in neurovascular and cardiovascular imaging and cancer research.  She is active in the scientific community, including as an Associate Editor for leading journals and the publication of the MICCAI-Elsevier volume titled Trustworthy AI in Medical Imaging.

Prof. Zuluaga attended her first MICCAI conference when she was a PhD student in 2008 and has attended almost every conference since then. She has been engaged with the MICCAI Society as an author, organizer, mentor, reviewer and volunteer. She served as Program Co-Chair for MICCAI 2020, Area Chair for MICCAI 2021 and MICCAI 2022 and Workshop Chair for MICCAI 2024 while also serving as reviewer since MICCAI 2013. Prof. Zuluaga was elected to the board by the membership of the MICCAI Society.

Antonio Porras

Antonio Porras, PhD, is an Associate Professor with an award of Tenure in the Department of Biostatistics and Informatics of the Colorado School of Public Health (University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus) where he teaches courses on machine learning and biomedical image analysis. He also directs the Medical Imaging and Machine Intelligence lab and serves as Director of Research in the Department of Pediatric Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery at Children’s Hospital Colorado. His research interest is the development of computational and machine learning methods and tools to improve the understanding, diagnosis and treatment of pathology with a focus on the study of pediatric and development disorders.

Prof. Porras was elected by the MICCAI Society board members to join as a director. He has been actively involved with the MICCAI Society since 2013 and has served on Program Committees for MICCAI conferences and events from 2016-2026. Since 2020, he has been the co-principal investigator of the awards from the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering to support attendance of US-based students and early career scientists to MICCAI. He also co-chaired the Young Investigators and Early Career Development Program at MICCAI 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024. He co-founded the MICCAI Society Mentorship Program in 2018 and has been an ad hoc member of the MICCAI Society Career Advancement Working Group since 2022, in which he now serves as co-chair.

Jichao Zhao

Jichao Zhao, PhD, is an Associate Professor at the Auckland Bioengineering Institute (ABI) at the University of Auckland (UoA), New Zealand (NZ).  He leads the Cardiac Electrophysiology Group at ABI, advancing the understanding and treatment of cardiac disease through the integration of machine learning, digital twins, and clinical studies. He has published over 100 peer-reviewed papers and received the UoA Research Excellence Medal in 2019 for his outstanding individual research contributions. Prof. Zhao is a Fellow of the Heart Rhythm Society (HRS) and serves on the Asia-Pacific HRS Digital Health Committee. He is also an Associate Editor of Medical Image Analysis and has published in leading venues, including MICCAI, Medical Image Analysis, and IEEE Transactions on Medical Imaging.

Prof. Zhao is the General Chair for MICCAI 2027, which will be held in Auckland, New Zealand. He first attended and organized a cardiac segmentation challenge at MICCAI 2018. Since then, he has participated in most subsequent MICCAI conferences, including organizing challenges, publishing research, and serving as a paper reviewer. 

Stefanie Speidel - Secretary

Stefanie Speidel, PhD,  extends her term on the board to become its Secretary on February 1, 2026. She joined the Board in 2022 when she was elected as the Board-elected member and has chaired the Diversity Working Group, leading efforts to promote equity, inclusion and representation within the Society. She was also a member of the Education Working Group to increase the Society’s impact and reach through MICCAI-Endorsed events, working to establish new Special Interest Groups and deliver the MICCAI Fellows Talk Series. 

Prof. Speidel was recognized as a MICCAI Fellow in 2023 and is currently Professor of Translational Surgical Oncology and director at the National Center for Tumor Diseases (NCT/UCC) in Dresden, Germany.

Our Appreciation to Directors Completing their Terms

Our gratitude goes to two board members, Linwei Wang and Karim Lekadir, who completed their terms on January 31, 2026.  Wang concludes six years of dedicated and impactful service on the Board, including three years as the Board Secretary.  Lekadir was chair of the Communications Working Group and General Chair of MICCAI 2024 in Marrakesh, Morocco.

“We have so many reasons to thank Linwei and Karim for their outstanding dedication and service to the MICCAI Society, as well as for their collegiality and friendship” said Linguraru. “Their leadership, insight, and commitment have played a vital role in strengthening our community. We wish them every success in their next chapter and look forward to seeing them soon in Abu Dhabi.”

Linwei Wang

Linwei Wang, PhD, joined the board in 2020 and was elected Secretary in 2023. She was also Program Chair of MICCAI 2022 held in Singapore. During her term, she worked diligently to improve the board election process, established new awards and ensured the integrity and quality of the MICCAI Society grants and awards program. She also chaired the Diversity Working Group. Prof. Wang is a Professor in the Department of Computing and Information Sciences at the Rochester Institute of Technology.

Karim Lekadir

Karim Lekadir, PhD, became a director of the MICCAI Society in 2022. He was General Chair of MICCAI 2024 in Marrakesh, Morocco – the first MICCAI conference held on the African continent. He was also Chair of the Communications Working Group and helped to establish the MICCAI Quarterly newsletter and increase the MICCAI Society’s digital presence. Prof. Lekadir is an ICREA Research Professor in the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science at the University of Barcelona and Director of the Artificial Intelligence in Medicine Las (BCN-AIM).