NEW YORK — Columbia’s Zuckerman Institute congratulates Principal Investigator Tommy Vaughan, PhD, for his election to the College of Fellows of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE).

A pioneer in the use of magnetic resonance (MR), Dr. Vaughan came to Columbia to launch a university-wide initiative to develop and apply MR methods and technologies to advance biomedical research and clinical diagnostics. He serves as the director of the Columbia MR Research Center, which supports the use of MR to study living organisms to shed light on issues ranging from brain disease to the body’s response to COVID, to why people react to art in different ways.

A professor of biomedical engineering at Columbia Engineering and radiology at the Columbia University Irving Medical Center, Dr. Vaughan was nominated, reviewed, and elected by peers and members of the AIMBE’s College of Fellows for pioneering the development of magnetic resonance imaging, spectroscopy and fMRI technologies for applications in science and medicine. The College of Fellows comprises the top two percent of medical and biological engineers in the country.

According to the AIMBE, fellows are regularly recognized for their contributions in teaching, research, and innovation. They have helped revolutionize medicine and related fields to enhance and extend the lives of people all over the world: and successfully advocated for public policies that have enabled researchers and business-makers to further the interests of engineers, teachers, scientists, clinical practitioners, and ultimately, patients.