Spencer L. Bowen

Spencer L. Bowen, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Radiology at UT Southwestern Medical Center, where he is a member of the Radiology Research section and serves as a PET research scientist. His work is centered on advancing nuclear imaging technologies for clinical and research applications in oncology, neurology, and cardiology.

Education:

• Bachelor's in Biomedical Engineering – University of Washington, Seattle
• Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering – University of California, Davis
• Research Fellow – Massachusetts General Hospital, Charlestown, MA

Dr. Bowen's research focuses on the development of advanced PET imaging systems, including dedicated breast PET/CT scanners and hybrid PET-MR technologies. He investigates image acquisition techniques, reconstruction algorithms, attenuation and scatter correction methods, and partial volume correction to improve quantitative accuracy. His work spans hardware design, software development (e.g., the Masamune processing tool), and clinical translation.

His recent publications highlight innovations in cardiac and neurological PET quantification, breast imaging, and hybrid PET/MR systems. Themes include attenuation correction in PET/MR, dynamic PET modeling, and the impact of image processing on clinical interpretation.

Scientific Recognition:

• Research featured on the cover of the Journal of Nuclear Medicine
• Work covered by press outlets

Dr. Bowen actively contributes to the scientific community as a reviewer for leading journals including Journal of Nuclear Medicine, Medical Physics, Physics in Medicine and Biology, and IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science and Transactions on Medical Imaging. His lab, the Bowen Lab, is engaged in ongoing research and is currently recruiting PhD graduate students, indicating active grant support and research momentum. He leads a research team focused on developing tomographic tools for precision medicine.

The Bowen Lab is dedicated to creating and refining nuclear imaging technologies to enhance both clinical care and scientific discovery, with a strong emphasis on quantitative, high-resolution imaging across multiple disease domains.