Wayne State partners with Chinese university to conduct MRI training

Wayne State University has formalized an agreement with East China Normal University (ECNU) to develop a joint and cooperative MRI research training program in biomedical engineering, physics and magnetic resonance imaging research. Faculty, researchers and students from both institutions are working with Siemens MR equipment and will benefit from this partnership.

Mark Haacke, (pictured right) director of Wayne State's MR Research Facility and professor of biomedical engineering, spearheaded this agreement by arranging for funding from ECNU that can be used for exchange purposes to enhance MR research at ECNU, and to fund additional research at Wayne State. The program will be effective in fall of 2015 and will involve the selection of one or more graduate students from each institution to conduct part of their dissertation research at ECNU and Wayne State, respectively, for three months to two years. A Wayne State faculty member will act as a faculty advisor in conjunction with an ECNU faculty member as a co-advisor. A key part of the agreement requires faculty members and students from each institution will have to spend time researching at Wayne State and ECNU.

"It was my background in physics and engineering that led me to affiliate with ECNU and their MRI physics group," said Haacke. "Having visited Shanghai several times last year I was able to develop a small group focusing on susceptibility weighted imaging and fast imaging methods. Now it is our hope that this agreement will allow our researchers and students at each respective institution to learn from each other in order to improve our outcomes."

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