Jia Ying ’19, MS ’20, PhD ’26 Places First in Young Investigator Award

In her research, Jia Ying ’19, MS ’20, PhD ’26, who recently earned a doctoral degree in biomedical engineering, develops quantitative imaging biomarkers – ways of turning MRI and PET scans into reproducible, patient-specific measurements. Her broader goal is to bridge the gap between promising research methods and tools reliable enough for everyday clinical use. “Ultimately,” Ying said, “I would like to give clinicians more dependable, individualized information for the patients who depend on it.” 

When she began her college experience, Ying did not know exactly what she wanted to do, but she knew she wanted to contribute to healthcare in some way. “I was drawn to problem-solving. I happened to be good at physics, and I’d also been fascinated by psychology and how the brain works. Biomedical engineering was appealing because it brought those interests together under one roof,” she said. Through Stony Brook University’s accelerated program, Ying earned both her Bachelor of Engineering and Master of Science degrees in biomedical engineering. 

Ying’s work now spans medical problems from analyzing breast cancer risk to early knee osteoarthritis to mesial temporal lobe epilepsy (MTLE). In the area of MTLE, she used a medical imaging strategy to help determine which side of the brain a patient’s seizures originate from in order to prepare the patient for surgery. 

For her research, the Brain Imaging Council of the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging (SNMMI) recognized her with the First Place Young Investigator Award at its 2026 Annual Meeting held in Los Angeles. Her abstract is entitled, “Structurally Constrained FDG-PET Metabolic Networks via Diffusion MRI Aid Lateralization and Outcome Prediction in MTLE.”

The sophisticated medical imaging she used is a combination of MRI and fluorodeoxyglucose-positron emission tomography (FDG-PET), acquired simultaneously, together capturing both the brain’s structural connections and its glucose metabolism.  

According to the council’s website, “The objectives of the award are to identify promising young investigators working in brain imaging and neuroscience nuclear medicine.” 

“Much of this work is quiet and technical, so having it recognized by the nuclear medicine community means a lot,” said Ying. “What I take from it personally is some confidence that using imaging to guide patient care more precisely is worth the effort, and it’s a thread I want to keep pulling as I move into clinical training.”

“In my PhD lab, the Medical Image Research & Analysis (MIRA) Lab, I was fortunate to have access to PET/MRI brain data, which gave me a lot of room to explore,” said Ying. “Diffusion MRI can map the white matter connections between different regions of the brain, while FDG-PET reflects how active each region is through its glucose metabolism. I became interested in combining the information from these two imaging modalities to study a range of neurological diseases. That line of thinking is what shaped how I approached the epilepsy project.”

Professor Chuan Huang has been Ying’s research advisor throughout her master’s and PhD journey. When he joined Emory University in 2022, Ying continued to work with him while remaining enrolled at Stony Brook University. Professor Huang said, “Jia’s commitment to the work never wavered, even as our lab transitioned to Emory. This project used an innovative approach that brought PET and MRI data together in the same analytic framework to address a clinically important challenge in epilepsy imaging. Jia carried out the work with strong technical judgment and persistence, and this award is a well-deserved recognition of her creativity and scientific maturity.” 

Professor Terry Button, Ying’s medical physics program director, said, “The field of Medical Physics needs bright, passionate minds like Jia who bring both technical expertise and clinical insight to their work. I have no doubt that she will continue to excel and make significant contributions to the field. With her solid training in Medical Physics and outstanding research record, she will be an extraordinary Medical Physicist.” 

Ying’s graduate program director and member of her doctoral thesis committee, Professor Paul Vaska, said, “I’ve been impressed by Jia’s extensive knowledge across multiple clinical imaging modalities, her scientific communication abilities, and her strong record of research output.  I have no doubt she will succeed in her future endeavors.” 

Ying will begin a residency in medical physics in the Department of Radiation Oncology at Mount Sinai Hospital. 

-Written by Debra Scala Giokas
-Photo credit: Dr. Zipai Wang