Ling Jian Meng

Ling Jian Meng is a Professor in the Department of Nuclear, Plasma, and Radiological Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), with affiliations in the Department of Bioengineering and the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology. He holds a Ph.D. in Detector Physics from the University of Southampton (2001) and a B.Sc. in Modern Physics from the University of Science and Technology of China (1995). His research focuses on biomedical imaging, radiation detection, and advanced X-ray imaging techniques, emphasizing instrumentation for emission tomography (PET/SPECT), nanomaterial-mediated radiation therapy, and statistical performance assessment.

Dr. Meng's work spans innovations in imaging system design, including single-photon emission microscopy and energy-resolved photon-counting detectors. He has contributed to the development of novel imaging geometries for X-ray fluorescence tomography and adaptive angular sampling methods for SPECT. His research also explores health physics applications and imaging hardware advancements using technologies like intensified EMCCD cameras and semiconductor detectors (HgI₂, CZT).

He teaches courses such as NPRE 435 (Radiological Imaging) and NPRE 441 (Radiation Protection). His consulting activities include roles in proliferation deterrence and NIH imaging study sections. Current projects include NIH-funded grants for brain imaging systems and molecular imaging advancements. Dr. Meng holds patents on gamma-ray spectrometry and photon-density imaging systems, and he actively recruits post-doctoral researchers for his Radiation Detection and Imaging Group.