Rudin is named SPIE Fellow for advancing medical physics to improve the diagnosis and treatment of stroke

BUFFALO, N.Y. — Stephen Rudin, PhD, SUNY Distinguished Professor in the Department of Radiology in the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at the University at Buffalo, has been named a Fellow of SPIE, the International Society for Optics and Photonics.

Rudin, who directs UB’s Division of Radiation Physics, is one of 73 major international figures in optics, photonics and imaging named SPIE Fellows this year. A faculty member since 1977, he is being recognized for his achievements in image-guided endovascular interventions and medical physics.  

A pioneer in developing new technologies in medical diagnostics and interventional imaging, Rudin has been at the forefront of developing high-resolution X-ray imaging detectors, dose reduction methods, and endovascular devices such as asymmetric stents.  

Rudin’s work has major theoretical and clinical implications for medical physics, biomedical engineering and diagnostic radiology, as well as an immediate impact upon patient diagnosis and care, particularly in cases of heart and brain treatment. A leader in advanced X-ray planar and tomography imaging in neuroimaging applications, he has been involved in further developing X-ray angiography and computed tomography (CT) for diagnosis and assessment of neurovascular diseases.

Working with colleagues in the Canon Stroke and Vascular Research Center (formerly the Toshiba Stroke Research Center), Rudin and his team have been developing imaging methods geared toward replacing invasive neurovascular surgical procedures for treating pathologies, such as aneurysms, with minimally invasive image-guided interventions.

With continuous funding from the National Institutes of Health and other sources since 1977, Rudin has led the development of prototype high-resolution, real-time imaging detectors for diagnosing neurovascular diseases. He also has spent much of his career developing techniques that will minimize radiation doses patients receive during procedures such as angiography and CT scans, while improving device guidance.

He has had consistent support from industry, including Toshiba and Canon, for developing new imaging techniques to improve diagnosis and treatment of stroke and related disorders, with some of the projects resulting in products distributed worldwide.

Rudin founded and directs UB’s Medical Physics Graduate program, one of only 41 such nationally accredited programs in the U.S., and he has advised more than 110 graduate students at UB and Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center. His group has received numerous awards including first prizes for projects, such as the creation of patient-specific 3D phantoms for vascular procedure treatment planning and research, patient dose savings with region of interest fluoroscopy, automatic brightness control in digital fluoroscopy, evaluation of amorphous selenium for fluoroscopy, new approaches to quality assurance in digital radiography, and a variety of other projects.

Rudin also has held joint appointments in the UB departments of Neurosurgery, Physiology and Biophysics, Biomedical Engineering, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering; and Physics.

A consistent contributor to the SPIE Medical Imaging Symposium and the SPIE medical imaging community in general, Rudin's advocacy and commitment to the field have resulted in UB’s recognized prominence in medical imaging internationally.

The author of more than 500 publications including over 200 SPIE articles and presentations, he has been awarded four patents and has received numerous awards from other major scientific societies, such as the Radiological Society of North America and the American Association of Physicists in Medicine. At UB, he is the recipient of a Sustained Achievement Award, a Product Development Fund Award and the Stockton Kimball Award, the highest honor for a UB faculty member in the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences.

Rudin and his family live in Williamsville, New York.