PhD Position in Advanced Brain PET Image Reconstruction

Stellenbeschreibung:

Data curation: retrospective collection, quality control, and preprocessing of approximately 500 static and dynamic brain PET/MR datasets acquired UZ Leuven during the last 10 years.
Open data infrastructure: pseudonymisation and conversion of raw listmode data into open, standardized formats.
GPU software development: design and optimization of high-performance, open-source time-of-flight (TOF) listmode forward and back-projectors for integration into ML frameworks such as PyTorch, building on the existing parallelproj library.
Method evaluation: critical assessment of reconstruction algorithms developed across all partner institutions, in close collaboration with clinical and kinetic modelling experts at UZ Leuven.
Challenge organisation: planning and execution of an open international brain PET reconstruction challenge, including data sharing agreements, automatic evaluation pipelines, and platform setup.
Dissemination: presentation of results at international conferences and publication in peer-reviewed journals.

Master's degree (or equivalent) in Engineering, Physics, Computer Science, Mathematics, or a closely related field, obtained before the start date.
Solid programming skills in Python (or other high-level languages) and experience with scientific computing libraries (e.g., NumPy, PyTorch).
Strong mathematical background in linear algebra, optimization, and probability/statistics.
Very good written and spoken English.
Enthusiasm for interdisciplinary research at the interface of medical imaging and machine learning.
High intrinsic motivation.
Prior experience with medical image reconstruction or emission tomography.
Experience in efficient handling of large research data sets.
Knowledge of variational methods, convex optimization, or iterative algorithms for inverse problems.
Experience with open-source software development and version control (Git).
Exposure to deep learning methods.
Direct access to state-of-the-art clinical PET infrastructure and clinical experts at UZ Leuven.
High-performance GPU computing resources.
Participation in international conferences and project workshops (Leuven, Munich, Graz).
Short-term research exchanges at partner institutions in Graz (Austria) and Munich (Germany).
A fully funded 4-year PhD position within a stimulating, internationally connected research environment.
A vibrant, international academic community in Leuven — a historic university city in the heart of Europe.