KIM Seong-Gi, Director of the Center for Neuroscience Imaging Research within the Institute for Basic Science (IBS) and Professor of Biomedical Engineering at Sungkyunkwan University, has been awarded the prestigious Gold Medal from the International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine (ISMRM), the world's top academic society in the MRI field. He is the first recipient from Asia to receive this award in the field of magnetic resonance. The ISMRM Gold Medal recognizes significant contributions to research in the field of magnetic resonance, and is awarded annually to 2-4 outstanding researchers.

Director KIM Seong-Gi is one of the pioneering scientists who first applied functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) techniques to humans in 1992. Although he was a professor at the University of Pittsburgh, he returned to Korea joined IBS in 2013 to contribute to the advancement of neuroscience. At this year's annual conference, he was recognized for his contributions to understanding the fundamental physiological basis of fMRI signals through human and animal research.

Neuroscientists study brain function using fMRI to understand how brain cells are activated. When brain cells are activated, there is an increase in energy consumption, leading to an increase in blood flow and oxygen levels in the blood. fMRI images can be obtained by detecting such changes in oxygen levels.

Director Kim's research focuses on elucidating the correlation between physiological phenomena occurring in brain cells and signals captured by MRI. His notable achievements include developing new MRI methods for measuring brain blood flow and volume, elucidating the relationship between brain cell activity and changes in blood flow and volume, identifying correlations between fMRI signals, and understanding the causal relationships in information processing between activated brain areas.

The Gold Medal was awarded to Director KIM Seonggi, Leon AXEL (physician-scientist, Professor of Medicine at New York University School of Medicine), and Wang Yi (physicist, Professor of Medicine at Cornell University). Director Kim is the first recipient from Asia to receive this prize in the field of MRI. Earlier, Kaori TOGASHI, a Japanese professor at Kyoto University, received the award in 2020 in the field of medical science. Among the past recipients of the ISMRM Gold Medal, Richard ERNST (Nobel laureate in Chemistry in 1991) and Paul LAUTERBUR and Peter MANSFIELD (Nobel laureates in Physiology or Medicine in 2003) are notable figures in the field of MRI.

Director Kim stated, "The IBS Center for Neuroscience Imaging Research possesses world-class MRI facilities for both human (7 Tesla) and animal (15.2 Tesla) imaging," adding “Establishing the IBS-Sungkyunkwan University N Center, which is the top MRI research facility in Korea and receiving this award is deeply meaningful for me.” He also emphasized, "It is even more honorable to achieve such recognition in the MRI field through basic research, rather than through the development of new imaging technologies or clinical studies."

ISMRM boasts 8,000 members from 58 countries, and its annual conference is the largest event where researchers, clinicians, government agencies, academia, and industry leaders gather. The award ceremony took place on May 6th in Singapore.

▲ Director KIM Seong-Gi of the Center for Neuroscience Imaging Research