Our first Faculty Coffee Hour will be with Dr. Janine Bijsterbosch! She is an assistant professor of radiology and a principal investigator in the Computational Imaging Research Center for Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology.
Join us for our coffee hour on June 28th @ noon!
Research:
- Briefly describe your research:
- The Personomics Lab aims to understand how brain measures differ from one person to the next, by studying the “personalized connectome”. Using population datasets such as the UK Biobank, the Personomics Lab adopts cutting edge computational techniques to study population mental health.
- What are you most excited about in your research area?
- The size of datasets in neuroimaging has exploded in recent years with the UK Biobank (N=100,000) and the ABCD (N=10,000), which are truly astounding numbers compared to the previous “norm” of sample sizes ranging from 12 up to about 100. As a result, we have the statistical power to use rigorous computational techniques, and exciting opportunities to study ‘real world’ aspects of population mental health.
- What motivates you the most each day?
- I really enjoy the freedom to study what I find interesting and the intellectual stimulation that academia offers. Whether it’s thinking through a grant application or discussing projects with students, I really enjoy the thoughtful challenges of science!
- Are you accepting new graduate students?
- Yes
Mentorship
- What sort of mentorship style appeals to you?
- To me it is about balancing support with ownership. The role of the PI is to provide the guidance, direction, and advice to help the student to become an independent researcher and support their broader career choices. The role of the student is to take the lead in their own research project.
Advice
- What’s your go-to productivity trick?
- Knowing yourself and following your strengths to plan out when to work on what. For example, I am productive in the mornings so I protect that time for grant/paper writing or other “deep” work, whereas I’m more social in the afternoon so I mostly plan meetings after lunch.
Personal Interests
- What do you like to do outside of work?
- I am an obstacle racer (i.e., I like to do Tough Mudder and Spartan Races). In fact, I just completed the 2022 Spartan Trifecta Championships in Sparta (Greece), which involved three races of 4, 8, and 15 miles on three consecutive days.
- What’s your ideal way to spend your weekends?
- My ideal weekend at home (i.e., when not traveling) contains a mixture of cooking, running, and volunteering as a Therapy Dog team with my Labrador named Bungee.