Newly Appointed Director of Physics and Biology in Medicine Graduate Program

Dear Colleagues:

We are writing to announce the appointment of Xiaohong Joe Zhou, Ph.D., as the Director of the Physics and Biology in Medicine Graduate Program at UCLA and Chief of Imaging Physics at UCLA Health, effective July 1, 2026. 

Dr. Zhou is currently a tenured Professor of Radiology, Neurosurgery, and Biomedical Engineering at the University of Illinois (UI) College of Medicine at Chicago and serves as Director of the Center for Magnetic Resonance Research and Chief Medical Physicist for Department of Radiology, UI Health.

He received his B.Sc. degree from Peking University in China, and his Ph.D. degree from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Following postdoctoral training in radiology at Duke University, Dr. Zhou joined the Applied Science Laboratory of General Electric Medical System (now GE Healthcare) where he made numerous contributions to fast imaging, diffusion MRI, and system engineering. In 1998, he was recruited to The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center as an Assistant Professor and a clinical medical physicist, where he was quickly promoted to Associate Professor with tenure. Since relocating to University of Illinois at Chicago in 2003, Dr. Zhou has been conducting MRI research, providing medical physics clinical services, and directing research programs at the Center for Magnetic Resonance Research.

Dr. Zhou’s recent research has focused on diffusion imaging and its applications to studying tissue microstructural changes in cancer and other diseases. He has served as Principal Investigator on multiple NIH grants, published about 150 peer-reviewed articles, and held 36 U.S. or international patents on numerous MRI technologies. Notably, he also co-authored two widely used MRI books, “Handbook of MRI Pulse Sequences” and “Clinical MR Physics: State-of-the-Art Practice.”

Dr. Zhou is a board-certified medical physicist by the American Board of Radiology (ABR), the American Board of Medical Physics (ABMP), and the American Board of Magnetic Resonance Safety (ABMRS). He served as Vice Chair and then Chair of ABMP from 2019 to 2023 and was instrumental in establishing the ABMP Certification on MR for Radiation Therapy. Presently, Dr. Zhou chairs the MR Physics Committee of the American College of Radiology (ACR). Dr. Zhou's significant contributions to MRI and medical physics have led to his induction as a fellow by the International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine (ISMRM), the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE), and the American Association of Physicists in Medicine (AAPM). He is also a recipient of the Distinguished Investigator Award by the Academy for Radiology and Biomedical Imaging Research.

We would like to thank Dr. McNitt-Gray for his many years of outstanding leadership and service as Director of the Physics and Biology in Medicine Graduate Program – we are deeply grateful for his stewardship of a program which is among the top medical physics graduate training programs in the nation. 

We also thank the search committee members, whose names are listed below, for their dedication and commitment to the search process. 

Please join us in welcoming Dr. Zhou to UCLA!

Michael L. Steinberg, MD
Professor and Chair 
Department of Radiation Oncology 
David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA

Stephen C. Cannon, MD, PhD
Professor and Chair, Department of Physiology
Professor, Department of Neurology
Interim Chair, Department of Molecular and Medical Pharmacology
David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA

Jonathan Goldin, MD, PhD
Professor and Chair, Department of Radiological Sciences
David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA

Director, Physics & Biology in Medicine Search Committee 

• Daniel Low, PhD (chair): Professor and Vice Chair of Medical Physics Research and Innovation, Departments of Radiation Oncology and Radiological Sciences
• Alex Bui, PhD: Professor, Departments of Radiological Sciences, Bioengineering & Bioinformatics
• Arion Chatziioannou, PhD: Professor and Vice Chair, Department of Molecular and Medical Pharmacology
• Elissa Hallem, PhD: Professor and Vice Chair, Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Molecular Genetics
• Tayo Ikotun, PhD: Assistant Professor, Department of Molecular and Medical Pharmacology
• Grace Kim, PhD: Professor, Department of Radiological Sciences
• James Lamb, PhD: Associate Professor and Vice Chair of Medical Physics, Department of Radiation Oncology 
• Christine Mona, PhD: Assistant Professor, Department of Molecular and Medical Pharmacology
• Dylan O’Connell, PhD: Assistant Professor, Department of Radiation Oncology
• Holden Wu, PhD: Professor, Departments of Bioengineering and Radiological Sciences