Welcome Message

Dear Colleagues,

On behalf of the Organizing Committee, we would like to extend you a warm welcome to the Sixteenth IEEE International Symposium on Biomedical Imaging. ISBI 2019, organized jointly by the IEEE Signal Processing Society and the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, will be held in Venice, Italy, April 8-11, 2019.

This year for the first time, ISBI travels to Venice, a UNESCO World Heritage site. Venice has been inspiring the imagination since the year 421 with its cultural treasures and timeless beauty. Under the historical patronage of the Republic of Venice, the University of Padova hosted eminent people of science–like Nicolaus Copernicus, Erasmus of Rotterdam and Galileo Galilei–, and medicine–like Andreas von Wesel, William Harvey, Antonio Vallisneri and Giovani Battista Morgagni, making it one of Europe’s oldest and most prestigious education centers. We are thrilled to be in a place with such rich history of innovation in science and medicine.

The response from our community has been enthusiastic and we received record-high submissions of four-page full papers and of one-page abstracts, contributed by authors from 44 countries on six continents. We will have a very exciting program of 110 oral and 400 poster presentations.

This year’s program also includes five Plenary Talks presented by world-renowned imaging scientists and clinicians: Dr. Andres Lozano will present advances in functional neurosurgery; Dr. Stephan Saalfeld will describe scalable methods and tools for large 3D light and electron microscopy; Prof. Jeanette Schulz-Menger will speak on the use of cardiovascular images in clinical research and clinical practice; Prof. Monique M.B. Breteler will elaborate on population imaging in the context of ageing and development of neurodegenerative diseases; and Prof. Satyajit Mayor will share his experience on photonics and the structure, dynamics and organization of the living cell membrane.

For more than a millennium, Venice has been a crossroad of the world and an entrepot of science, culture and trade, symbolized still by its picturesque and poetic bridges. To honor this tradition and continue to bridge scientific divides, ISBI 2019 will host the first edition of Clinical Day, a day-long special session designed to promote the exchange of emerging knowledge of biomedical imaging in the clinical fields. The focus area of Clinical Day is modern applications of neuroimaging to motor neuron disease, traumatic brain injury, and psychiatry. The attendees will have the opportunity to hear four extraordinary Keynotes: Dr. Suma Babu will speak about nuclear imaging clinical phenotypes and the progression of motor neuron disease; Dr.  Marcella Bellani will present neuroimaging applications and findings in psychiatry; Dr. Elisabeth Wilde will review the state of neuroimaging in traumatic brain injury and concussion; and Dr. Alessandro Padovani will discuss the emerging role of neuroimaging techniques in neurodegenerative diseases. In addition, Dr. Behrouz Shabestari will present funding opportunities at NIH/NHLBI for the early-career researchers in our community.

We once again have a stimulating program of nine Challenges that serve to determine the state-of-the-art for evaluating methods on common data. This year’s Challenges will address cell segmentation and cell classification from microscopic images; image registration and cancer detection in histological images; artifact detection in endoscopy; organ segmentation in CT and MR images; white matter reconstruction from MRI; and pathology detection from retinal images. In addition, five Tutorials will present advances in compressed sensing MRI; geodesic methods in biomedical image analysis; optimal transport for machine learning; deep learning for biomedical image reconstruction; and ultrasound elastography and photoacoustic imaging for tissue characterization. There are also six Special Sessions at ISBI 2019: PET imaging; imaging genetics; spline models; geometry-based models; pediatric brain imaging; and global health.

IEEE ISBI supports diversity in science and engineering. Our committee represents sixteen countries on six continents, it includes students and senior scientists alike and almost half our members are women. In support of early-career researchers, ISBI 2019 will recognize and award the best papers presented at the symposium and will also offer travel grants to early-career researchers, women and minorities. In addition, the Lunches with Leaders will stimulate interactions with experts on topics of career development, peer-reviewed funding, work experience, science and entrepreneurship to inspire and motivate our early-career community; look for the Mentor ribbons to connect with an expert.

We hope that you will enjoy the diversity and quality of the scientific and clinical presentations, as well as the opportunity to learn why the culture and legacy of Venice has earned her the reputation as La Serinissima, unique in world heritage. We have planned several Social and Cultural Events at the end of every conference day. On Monday, join us for light food, drinks and conversation at the Welcome Reception at the Hilton Molino Stucky. On Tuesday, enjoy Dinner with Jam Session at Laguna Libre, a premier venue that combines culture, food, art and social life in the historic center of Venice. On Wednesday, please be our guests for a visit of the historic church of Santi Giovanni e Paolo followed by a Concert of Venetian Baroque Music; the setting is one of the most stunning churches on the island, which has served for centuries as the burial place of the Venetian rulers and famous artists alike.

 

We are immensely thankful to the Organizing Committee, the 56 Associate Editors and 444 Reviewers who spent numerous hours ensuring that we will have a successful and exciting symposium. Our special thanks and gratitude go to the Program Chairs, Maria Ledesma-Carbayo and Miguel Angel Gonzalez Ballester, and to the continuous support of Elsa Angelini, Daniel Rueckert, Elisa Roccia, Felicia Alfano, Juan Cerrolaza, Luca Marinelli and Luca Giancardo. Many thanks also to Caroline Johnson and Samantha Walters at IEEE and Brianna Angelakis and Chrys Dyer at Conference Catalyst, and to our many and generous sponsors who made possible this thrilling scientific and social program.

Finally, a very warm thank you to everyone who will travel from far and wide to help make ISBI 2019 a great forum for our community, to discuss the present and future of biomedical imaging and to enjoy once again a chance to strengthen our scientific, professional and social bonds.

Welcome and benvenuti!

 

Marius George Linguraru

Children’s National Health System / George Washington University
IEEE ISBI 2019 General Chair

Enrico Grisan

University of Padova / King’s College London
IEEE ISBI 2019 General Chair