Markus Barth

Markus graduated from the Vienna University of Technology in Technical Physics in 1995 and was awarded his Doctorate in 1999 after which he worked as postdoctoral research associate and then Assistant Professor at the Department of Radiodiagnostics, Medical University Vienna (AT). From 2004 he worked as Senior Researcher at the Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour (Radboud University Nijmegen, NL) and at the Erwin L. Hahn Institute for Magnetic Resonance Imaging (University Essen-Duisburg, DE). In 2014 he relocated to the University of Queensland to lead the Ultra-high Field Human MR Research program at the Centre for Advanced Imaging and was awarded an ARC Future Fellowship. Since 2019 he is Professor Biomedical Engineering in the School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science with a focus on Medical Imaging and MR Physics research. He served in various roles including Director for the National Imaging Facility – Queensland Node, Deputy Head of School – Research, and member of the ARC College of Experts, and is currently serving as Discipline Lead for Imaging, Sensing and Biomedical Engineering. Improving MRI: Markus is investigating how MRI can be improved by using new image contrasts by mapping quantitative tissue parameters and by using increased spatial resolution. For example, very small venous vessels and small bleedings in the brain can be visualised using specific contrasts using the MR phase reflecting magnetic susceptibility (SWI and QSM). This information can be used as a very sensitive disease marker in a range of neurodegenerative diseases (traumatic brain injuries, tumours, dementia). He is also developing faster image acquisition methods such as 3D Echo-Planar-Imaging (EPI) that allows reducing the acquisition time by a factor 5-10 compared to standard techniques while keeping the high image fidelity. Understanding brain activity using functional MRI: Blood oxygenation level dependent (BOLD) functional MRI gives a good picture of neural activation and connectivity in the living human brain non-invasively. Markus is particularly interested to identify small functional units of the brain, such as cortical layers and columns, in order to better understand brain function by developing very fast functional MRI techniques with the highest spatial resolution possible. Recently, he also addressed important neuroscientific questions such as memory consolidation during sleep and decoding measured functional signals (brain reading). He also explored the possibilities of simultaneous acquisition of EEG and fMRI to examine the link between electrophysiology and BOLD task activity and large scale brain networks.

[2026] Multimodal ultra-high-field MRI, clinical, cognitive, and genetic profiles across the ALS–FTD spectrum [2026] Evaluation of Phantom Doping Materials in Quantitative Susceptibility Mapping [2026] FlowSDE: a flow-matching-based SDE framework for predicting state transitions [2026] Mitigating banding artifacts in balanced steady‐state free precession using parallel transmission in a single acquisition [2026] SynPoC: a high-quality generative diffusion model for transforming ultra-low-field point-of-care MRI using high-field MRI representations [2026] From a voxel to maps: a comparative study of sLASER SVS and 3D-CRT-FID-MRSI at 3 T and 7 T [2025] T1-weighted fMRI in mouse visual cortex using an iron oxide nanoparticle contrast agent and UTE imaging at 9.4 T [2025] Segmentation of the h