I graduated from the University of Bristol in 1990 with a bachelor's degree in chemistry and earned a PhD in drug science from the University of Cambridge. After a postdoc in the Department of Radiology at the University of Florida, I joined the faculty of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. I was appointed professor in 2000, after which I worked for three years in the Department of Physics at the University of Würzburg on a Humboldt Fellowship. In 2008, I was appointed to head the newly formed C.J. Gorter Center at LUMC. My main research areas are translations of new engineering concepts into the clinic. Over the years, I have published more than 400 peer-reviewed articles and have authored five scientific textbooks.

I am professor of Radiology and founder and director of the Gorter MRI Center at LUMC. I have won several awards: Wolfgang Paul Prize from the German Humboldt Foundation (2004), Simon Stevin Master Prize from NWO (2017), two ERC Advanced Grants (2014-2020, 2021-2026) and jointly the Huibregten Prize in 2023. Elected a member of the Royal National Academy of Sciences in 2023.

My work mainly focuses on the Neuroscience theme for innovation.

My specific interest is in developing new MRI hardware, both at very high and very low frequency, from human to cellular scales. I am a member of a number of NWO National Roadmaps for Large-scale Research Facilities, such as uNMR-NL, and am part of many Horizon2020 grants.