Claudia Hillenbrand

Associate Professor Claudia Hillenbrand (PhD, MBA) serves as the inaugural Director of Research Imaging NSW (RINSW), the UNSW Human Imaging Research Facility at the Prince of Wales Hospital. She is an experienced Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) physicist with expertise spanning quantitative and functional MRI methods development, imaging innovation, and translation of imaging technologies into clinical applications. Her leadership has driven significant growth at RINSW, including the establishment of the RINSW human imaging research analysis support team and the installation of cutting-edge technology like the world-first 4DMedical human lung ventilation scanner.

• MS (Physics), PhD (Physics), MBA

Hillenbrand is internationally recognized for her work in quantitative MRI-based liver iron assessment and serves as a founding member of the Liver Iron Disease Focused Panel for the Society of Abdominal Radiology. Her research interests span biomedical imaging, neurosciences, image processing, radiology, medical physics, biomedical instrumentation, deep learning, and artificial intelligence. She has co-investigated over 40 human imaging research studies and clinical trials covering diverse areas including brain development and aging, sickle cell disease, epilepsy, cancer survivorship, and elite athlete studies.

Analysis of her recent publications reveals a strong focus on liver iron quantification techniques, particularly using UTE imaging and advanced modeling approaches. Her work consistently bridges physics, engineering, and clinical medicine, with increasing integration of deep learning methods for image analysis. The publications demonstrate expertise across multiple imaging modalities with particular emphasis on quantitative MRI techniques for clinical applications.

She actively supervises PhD students and research projects in neuroscience and biomedical imaging, with current supervisees including Dr Jiyang Jiang, Dr. Hannes Almgren, and Honours students Alisia Armstrong and Malvika Naupene. Her teaching portfolio includes BIOM9027 (Medical Imaging) and PATH3210 (Visualising Disease).

Under her leadership, RINSW has gained national recognition as a technically and operationally outstanding multi-center human imaging research study site. The facility has expanded to include advanced analytical capabilities and cutting-edge imaging technology that support translational research from basic science to clinical applications.