Kamil Uğurbil is a Regents Professor, McKnight Presidential Endowed Chair Professor, and founding Director of the Center for Magnetic Resonance Research (CMRR) at the University of Minnesota. He earned his B.A. in physics and Ph.D. in chemical physics from Columbia University in New York, N.Y., then joined AT&T Bell Laboratories in 1977 before returning to Columbia as a faculty member in 1979. He was recruited to the University of Minnesota in 1982, where his research in magnetic resonance led to the evolution of his laboratory into an interdepartmental and interdisciplinary research center, the CMRR.
His primary research has focused on developing magnetic resonance (MR) methods and instrumentation to achieve high spatiotemporal resolution and high-accuracy functional and anatomical imaging of the human brain, and on applying these methods to advance biomedical research and clinical care in general, and the study of the human brain in particular. This work has led to pioneering accomplishments, including the co-introduction of functional brain imaging (fMRI); the introduction of 7 Tesla MRI for human imaging; advancing ultrahigh magnetic field (defined as ≥7 Tesla) technology to achieve human imaging at fields greater than 10 Tesla; functional mapping of mesoscale, columnar, and layer-specific responses in the human brain; highly accelerated functional brain imaging; and MR spectroscopy studies of cellular metabolism in vivo.
He was one of two principal investigators of NIH’s Human Connectome Project and one of fourteen members of the working group tasked with developing the strategic plan for the U.S. BRAIN Initiative. He is the recipient of numerous honors, including membership in the U.S. National Academy of Medicine and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Richard R. Ernst Gold Medal, the Segerfalk Lecture Award, the ISMRM Gold Medal, the ISMAR Prize, the Koç Award, the IEEE Medal for Innovations in Healthcare Technology, and two honorary doctorates.
