Associate Professor of Physics at Khalifa University.
Dr. Aamir Raja is a Medical Physicist. He joined Khalifa University in August 2020 as an Assistant Professor where he co-founded the Medical Physics wing in the physics department and co-developed an accredited M.Sc program in medical physics.
Prior to his appointment, Dr Raja was the Senior Research Fellow in the Department of Academic Radiology at the University of Otago, Christchurch, New Zealand. He also held a Visiting Research Fellowship at the University of Canterbury, NZ and a Visiting Academic Teaching Staff position at the ARA Institute of Canterbury, NZ. Dr Raja also held a secondment position in the industry. He is a Life Member and Fellow of the Union for International Cancer Control. Currently, he also holds Honorary Senior Research Fellowship with the University of Otago Christchurch.
Dr. Raja has been working in x-rays imaging since 2009, beginning with the completion of his PhD in Medical Physics from Canterbury University. His research interest includes but is not limited to radiation physics and medical imaging physics, particularly x-ray imaging with small pixel detectors for medical and diagnostic imaging applications. Moreover, Dr. Raja and his colleagues contributed to the development of the world’s first commercial preclinical and clinical spectral photon-counting computed tomography, producing color x-ray images with applications to biology and medicine such as characterizing bone health, cartilage health, and metal implants imaging, cancer imaging with targeted nanoparticles, atherosclerosis (measuring calcification, lipid content), and arthritis (crystal arthropathies).
Dr. Raja has supervised more than twenty full-time thesis students. Out of twenty, he has directly supervised twelve University of Otago NZ students, two Master-level students from the University of Canterbury NZ and two from the National University of Science and Technology Pakistan (ongoing), and several visiting international PhD students, summer students, senior-level projects (4th year UG students) and interns.
Overall, Dr. Raja’s research has contributed to >25 journal publications, >20 peer-reviewed conference proceedings, >42 published abstracts, and two book chapters. He was PI/NI on various NZ-funded projects worth over $500K to work on cardiovascular disease imaging, joint diseases, and cancer imaging using photon-counting CT. He has also been awarded Khalifa University Faculty Startup Grant worth ~$300K in 2021.
Developing a machine learning-based smart radiation monitoring tool that connects with CT scanners and/or hospital PACS servers to automatically collect dose data into a central database for national-level comparison.
Combining nanoparticle technology with spectral CT and task-based image quality assessment to identify non-toxic, high-atomic-number contrast elements using clinical dual-energy CT and photon-counting CT systems.
Developing machine learning image denoising and correction techniques for metal-related artefacts in photon-counting CT, addressing beam hardening, photon starvation, and partial volume effects near implants.
Building deep learning post-reconstruction material decomposition algorithms for photon-counting CT to identify and quantify multiple materials indistinguishable in conventional CT.