2025 ISMRT Annual Meeting
Plenary Speakers
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Saif Afat
University Hospital of Tübingen
Tübingen, Germany
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Saif Afat is a Managing Senior Physician at the University Hospital of Tübingen, specializing in Oncological Imaging. With over a decade of experience in radiology, his expertise spans CT and MRI imaging technologies, Deep Learning MRI sequences, AI-driven diagnostics, and sustainability in radiology. One of his key research foci is reducing energy consumption in MRI using artificial intelligence, contributing to more sustainable and efficient imaging practices.
As the future President of the German Radiology Conference in 2026, Dr. Afat will join the Board of the German Roentgen Society, further shaping the direction of radiology. His vision is to strengthen international cooperation, enhance education for young radiologists, and drive innovation in radiology through unified strategies and political engagement.
Hanzhang Lu, Ph.D.
Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
Baltimore, MD, USA
Hanzhang Lu, Ph.D., is the Elias A. Zerhouni Professor of Radiology at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, with a secondary appointment in Biomedical Engineering. He also serves as the Director of the MRI Service Center and Chief of Neurofunction Section in the JHU Radiology Department. Dr. Lu obtained his PhD degree from the Johns Hopkins University and was on the faculty of UT Southwestern from 2005 to 2014. Dr. Lu’s research is focused on understanding brain physiology and pathophysiology using non-invasive magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) techniques, with a special emphasis on their relationship to brain aging, cerebrovascular diseases, and cognitive impairment.
Dr. Lu is a Fellow of the International Society of Magnetic Resonance in Medicine (ISMRM), Distinguished Investigator of the Academy for Radiology & Biomedical Imaging Research (ARBIR), Fellow of the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE), and Fellow of the International Academy for Medical and Biological Engineering (IAMBE). Dr. Lu has published over 300 peer-reviewed journal articles with an h-index of 75.
Elizabeth Morris, M.D.
University of California, Davis (UCD) School of Medicine
Davis, CA, USA
Elizabeth Morris, M.D., is Professor and Chair of Radiology at the University of California, Davis (UCD) School of Medicine. Dr. Morris graduated summa cum laude from UCD in Biochemistry and received her medical degree from the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). She completed her residency at Weill Cornell Medical College (WCMC) and a body/breast imaging fellowship at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC) where she remained on faculty until December 2020 where she was the Chief of the Breast Imaging Service and Larry Norton Endowed Chair.
Dr. Morris is a fellow of the American College of Radiology (ACR), Society of Breast Imaging (SBI) and International Society of MR in Medicine (ISMRM) and is past president of the SBI. She was awarded the SBI gold medal in 2024. She was the inaugural Equity Diversity & Inclusion officer of the ISMRM and co-chair of the Women of ISMRM (WISMRM). She is on the board of the Society of Chairs in Academic Radiology (SCARD) and currently serves as the Chair of the Council of Chairs at UCD.
Her research focus is on how best to use newer techniques such as MRI for early breast cancer detection and to improve the workup of breast lesions. In collaboration with her colleagues, she has written over 230 papers, 40 chapters, and 5 books about breast disease with an emphasis on the use of MRI. She has lectures widely both nationally and internationally at over 320 conferences. She has mentored over 50 international research fellows. She has grants from NCI, RSNA, Komen Foundation, and Breast Cancer Research Foundation. She has authored a book “Breast MRI: Diagnosis & Intervention”. Her recent research efforts have involved looking at imaging biomarkers to assess risk and treatment response.