People

CENTRE DIRECTOR

Piotr Kozlowski, PhD 

Dr. Piotr Kozlowski is the Director of the Imaging Centre. Piotr has a great deal of experience in working with small bore MRI systems.

604-827-3974

CENTRE ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR

Irene Vavasour, PhD 

Dr. Irene Vavasour is the Associate Director of the Imaging Centre. Irene has a wide breadth of experience with human MRI imaging studies across many diseases and MRI techniques.

ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR, PRE-CLINICAL

Stefan Reinsberg , PhD 

Dr. Stefan Reinsberg is the Associate Director, Preclinical.

FORMER DIRECTOR

Alex MacKay, PhD

Dr. Alex MacKay is the former director of the UBC MRI Research Centre, as well as Professor of Physics & Astronomy and Radiology.

604-822-7890

MR TECHNOLOGIST - 3T SUPERVISOR

Laura Barlow, RTR, RMTR

Laura has 18 years of Medical Imaging experience with 7 years in clinical MRI practice. She joined the UBC MRI Research centre team in 2015 and has enjoyed the transition to research. She is responsible for the staff and daily operations of the clinical research MRI facility.

604-822-7074

RESEARCH ADMINISTRATOR

Karina Antonenko, MBA
Karina Antonenko brings with her more than 7 years of administration experience at UBC and over 16 year experience in financial management as well as more than 9 year experience with HR processes and management. She is responsible for overseeing and managing all administrative, human resource and financial operations of the Imaging Centre.
604-822-7352

CENTRE RADIOLOGIST

Talia Vertinsky, MD, FRCP

Dr. Vertinsky is a Clinical Associate Professor of Radiology, UBC, and full time Clinical Neuroradiologist at VGH.
She has a BSc in Cellular Biology and Genetics from UBC and MD from UBC and completed Residency in Radiology at UBC and Fellowship in Neuroradiology in Stanford.
She is responsible for all Radiological aspects of the Imaging Centre.

FORMER CENTRE RADIOLOGIST

David Li, MD, FRCP

Dr. David Li is Professor Emeritus of Radiology and Emeritus Director of the MS/MRI Research Group.

604-822-7071

MRI CLINICAL SCIENTIST

Erin MacMillan, PhD

Erin is the MRI Clinical Scientist with deep expertise on Philips MRI systems, and develops and implements new MRI techniques for a wide range of applications. Erin is particularly interested in MR spectroscopy, myelin water imaging, and multi-nuclear imaging & spectroscopy.

Her personal research website
Her location calendar

SCIENTIFIC ENGINEER

Andrew Yung, MSc

Andrew joined the Imaging Centre in 2004 having graduated with a Master’s degree from Johns Hopkins in Biomedical Engineering. Andrew brings experience and expertise in radiofrequency coil development . He is responsible for daily operations of the Bruker Biospin 7T MR scanner and is the Safety Officer for the 7T facility.

604-822-6938

RESEARCH TECHNICIAN

Kirsten Bale, BSc

Kirsten joined the 7T team in September 2019 after completing her BSc in Physics at UBC, where she devoted time to the study of NMR. She brings experience in data analysis and is responsible for operating the 7T scanner.

604-827-3971

TECHNOLOGIST

Jeannette Procter, BSc, RTMR

Jeannette was originally trained in England, and has called Canada home since 2005. She has over 20 years of experience in MRI, and is looking forward to the opportunity to expand her knowledge and experience in advanced imaging techniques.

604-822-7074

TECHNOLOGIST

Neale Wiley, BSc, RTMR

Neale has a background in physics and several years of clinical MR experience. He joined the UBC MRI Research department as a technologist in 2019 and has a fascination with everything MR related.

604-822-7074

TECHNOLOGIST

Peter Kapela, Bsc, RTMR, RTNM

A long time ago in a brain and behaviour class, images of what happens in the brain in an MRI machine when certain actions are performed gave Peter the inspiration to look into the technology that made such images. It was MRI, and subsequent study and work has exposed him to all kinds of ways that we peer into our bodies, especially our brains. It was a straight route beginning in Nuclear Medicine (2005), CT (2009), and a BSc in Life Sciences at UBC. The MRI training was completed in 2011. In 2012 he moved to England and worked as a Nuclear Medicine and PET/CT technologist. In 2016 he moved to Saskatoon and worked mostly as a clinical MRI technologist. Peter and his family moved back to Vancouver in 2022, and he also works at St Pauls as an MRI Technologist. Peter brings a wide range of experiences and is excited to join the team to explore new aspects of what medical imaging technology can show us.

TECHNOLOGIST

Jaemin Chung, BSc, RTMR

Jaemin received her education in Ontario before returning to Vancouver in 2017. Prior to becoming an MRI technologist, she worked as a nuclear medicine technologist with most of her experience in radiopharmacy and quality assurance.

TECHNOLOGIST

Pietro Paolo de Barros, MSc, RTMR

Pietro has been an MRI technologist since 2012 and holds a Master’s degree in Radiological Protection. Originally from Brazil, he has extensive experience in clinical exams and image post-processing. In 2022, seeking new experiences, he moved to Vancouver to work at St. Paul’s Hospital. In July 2024, Pietro joined the UBC MRI Research team to further contribute to research and deepen his expertise in the field.

Philips MR Clinical Scientist

Guillaume Gilbert, PhD

Guillaume is a very experienced Philips MR Clinical Scientist based in Montreal.

Shannon Kolind, PhD - Associate Professor (Neurology)

Cornelia Laule, PhD - Associate Professor (Radiology and Pathology & Laboratory Medicine)

Alexander Rauscher, PhD - Associate Professor (Pediatrics)

Stefan Reinsberg, PhD - Associate Professor (Physics & Astronomy)

Bretta Russell-Schulz, MSc - Research Assistant

Roger Tam, PhD - Associate Professor (Radiology)