Prof Frangi is the Bicentennial Turing Chair in Computational Medicine at the University of Manchester, Manchester, UK, with joint appointments at the Schools of Computer Science and Health Science. He is also the Royal Academy of Engineering Chair in Emerging Technologies, with a focus on Precision Computational Medicine for in silico trials of medical devices. He is the Director of the Christabel Pankhurst Institute for Health Technology Research and Innovation. He is an Alan Turing Institute Fellow. His research vision was recently awarded an ERC Advanced Grant from the European Research Council. 

He is a recipient of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Technical Achievement (2021) and Early Career (2006) Awards, the ICT Knowledge Transfer Prize (2008) and two Teaching Excellence Prizes (2008 and 2010) by the Social Council of the Universitat Pompeu Fabra. He also received the UPF Medal (2011) for his service as Dean of the Escuela Politècnica Superior. He was awarded the ICREA-Academia Prize by the Institució Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avançats (ICREA) in 2008, a President's International Initiative Award in 2019 by the Chinese Academy of Science, and a Pengcheng Scholar Programme Distinguished Professor at Shenzhen University by the Shenzhen Education Bureau.

Prof Frangi has edited a textbook on Medical Image Analysis published in the MICCAI-Elsevier Book Series by Academic Press. 

Professor Frangi's main research interests lie at the crossroads of medical image analysis and modelling with an emphasis on machine learning (phenomenological models) and computational physiology (mechanistic models). He is particularly interested in statistical methods applied to population imaging and in silico clinical trials. His highly interdisciplinary work has been translated into the areas of cardiovascular, musculoskeletal and neurosciences.

In my group, we follow the Dutch PhD thesis model by publications for our graduate students because we are convinced that it leads to better PhD thesis and better-qualified graduate students. This means we expect our PhD students to produce 3 journal papers in peer-reviewed journals by the end of their PhD.  This is also our commitment to them.

You can check out the work of my former PhD students and our publications.

Doing a PhD will challenge different skills than your undergraduate studies. Prof Bill Freeman's (MIT) has eloquently reflected this in his essay: How to do research? "The jump from problem sets to research can be hard. We sometimes see students who ace their classes struggle with their research. In little bites, here is what I think is important for succeeding in research as a graduate student."

A PhD is not for everyone and certainly not for the faint-hearted. There is an increasing view that everyone who qualifies formally can do a PhD. My experience is that completing a successful PhD requires academic talent, creative thinking, and character/grit. I look to the evidence that a prospective student meets those three criteria.

Alejandro (Alex) was born in La Plata, Argentina. In 1991, he moved to Barcelona, Spain, where he obtained his undergraduate degree in Telecommunications Engineering from the Technical University of Catalonia (Barcelona) in 1996. Then, he carried out research on electrical impedance tomography for image reconstruction and noise characterisation at the same institution under a CIRIT grant. In 1997, he obtained a grant from the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs to pursue his PhD in Medicine at the Image Sciences Institute of the University Medical Centre Utrecht on model-based cardiovascular image analysis. During this period, he visited a researcher at the Imperial College in London, UK, and at Philips Medical Systems BV, The Netherlands. 

Since 2001, he has founded and directed the Centre for Computational Imaging and Simulation Technologies in Biomedicine. Prof Frangi has a visiting position at KU Leuven. At the national level, Prof Frangi leads InSilicoUK Innovation Network, spearheading in silico methods as a source of regulatory evidence and accelerated innovation in the life sciences sector.

Prof. Frangi edited several books, published seven editorial articles and more than 285 journal articles in key international journals of his research field, and more than 200 book chapters and international conference articles with an h-index 75, and more than 32,850 citations according to Google Scholar Citations. He has been three times Guest Editor of special issues of IEEE Trans Med Imaging, one of IEEE Trans Biomed Eng, and one of Medical Image Analysis journals.

He organised many international conferences. He was chair of the Third International Conference on Functional Imaging and Modelling of the Heart (FIMH05) held in Barcelona in June 2005, Publications Chair of the IEEE International Symposium in Biomedical Imaging (ISBI 2006), Programme Committee Member of various editions of the Intl Conf on Medical Image Computing and Computer Assisted Interventions (MICCAI) (Brisbane, AU, 2007; Beijing CN, 2010; Toronto CA 2011; Nice FR 2012; Nagoya JP 2013), International Liaison of ISBI 2009, Tutorials Co-Chair of MICCAI 2010, and Programmeme Co-chair of MICCAI 2015. He was also the General Chair for ISBI 2012, held in Barcelona, MICCAI 2018, held in Granada, Spain, and Information Processing in Medical Imaging (IPMI) 2023 in Bariloche, Argentina.

Under his leadership, CISTIB develops GIMIAS (Graphical Interface for Medical Image Analysis and Simulation), an open source platform to rapidly develop precommercial software prototypes in the areas of image computing and image-based computational physiology modelling, and MULTI-X (Health Data Analytics and Modelling As a Service Platform), a cloud-based platform for computational phenomics, in silico medicine, and in silico clinical trials. Research and development carried out in his group led to three spin-off companies (Clintelis SA 2009), GalgoMedical SA 2013 and adsilico Ltd 2022.

Prof Frangi is an IEEE Fellow (2014), EAMBES Fellow (2013), SPIE Fellow (2020), AAIA-AI Fellow (2021), MICCAI Fellow (2021), ATI Turing Fellow (2021), and FREng (2023).

He was elected to the Board of Directors of the Medical Image Computing and Computer-Assisted Interventions Society (MICCAI) (2014-2019). Prof. Frangi served on the Scientific Advisory Board of the European Institute for Biomedical Imaging Research (EIBIR, 2014-2018) and Chaired the Fellows Committee of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (2017-2018).

Prof Frangi is Chair of the Editorial Board of the MICCAI-Elsevier Book Series (2017-2023), is Associate Editor-in-Chief of Progress in Bioengineering (IOP Press), and serves as Associate Editor of IEEE Trans on Medical Imaging, Medical Image Analysis, SIAM Journal Imaging Sciences, Computer Vision and Image Understanding journals.

PhD Thesis I have (co)supervised in reverse chronological order 

T28. Lashgari M. Quantitative Analysis of Cardiac Magnetic Resonance in Population Imaging. PhD Thesis. Supervisors (ordered): Frangi AF, Schneider JE, Ravikumar N, Teh I, University of Leeds: Leeds, UK. Viva held 2023.

T27. Attar A. Quantitative Analysis of Cardiac Magnetic Resonance in Population Imaging. PhD Thesis. Supervisor: Frangi AF. University of Leeds: Leeds, UK. Viva was held in 2020.

T26. Coelho S. Diffusion MRI for Well‑posed and Optimal White Matter Microstructure Characterisation: Beyond Single Diffusion Encoding. PhD Thesis. Supervisors (ordered): Frangi AF, Pozo JM, University of Leeds: Leeds, UK. Viva was held in 2019.

T25. Zhang L. Image quality assessment for population cardiac MRI: from detection to synthesis. PhD Thesis. Supervisors (ordered): Frangi AF, Jewell G, University of Sheffield: Sheffield, UK. Viva was held in 2019.

T24. Sarrami‑Foroushani A. In silico clinical trials for assessment of intracranial flow diverters. PhD Thesis. Supervisors (ordered): Frangi AF, Lassila T, University of Sheffield: Sheffield, UK. Viva was held in 2018.

T23. Farzi M. Bone Ageing and Osteoporosis: Automated DXA Image Analysis for Population Imaging. PhD Thesis. Supervisors (ordered): Wilkinson JM, Frangi AF, University of Sheffield: Sheffield, UK. Viva was held in 2018.

T22. Manap R. New learning frameworks for blind image quality assessment model. PhD Thesis. Supervisors (ordered): Frangi AF, Shao L, University of Sheffield: Sheffield, UK. Viva was held in 2018.

T21. Pereanez M. Enlargement, Subdivision and Individualization of Statistical Shape Models: Application to 3D Medical Image Segmentation. PhD Thesis. Supervisors (ordered): Frangi AF, Lekadir K, Universitat Pompeu Fabra: Barcelona, Spain. Viva was held in 2017.

T20. Dong B. High‑throughput Image Analysis of Zebrafish Model of Parkinson’s Disease. PhD Thesis. Supervisor: Frangi AF. University of Sheffield: Sheffield, UK. Viva was held in 2017.

T19. Ravikumar N. A Probabilistic Framework for Statistical Shape Models and Atlas Construction: Application to Neuroimaging. PhD Thesis. Supervisors (ordered): Taylor ZA, Frangi AF, University of Sheffield. Viva was held in 2017.

T18. Alba X. Automated Cardiac MR Image Analysis for Population Imaging. PhD Thesis. Supervisors (ordered): Frangi AF, Lekadir K, Universitat Pompeu Fabra: Barcelona, Spain. Viva was held in 2017.

T17. Cimen S. Reconstruction of Coronary Arteries from X‑ray Rotational Angiography. PhD Thesis. Supervisors (ordered): Frangi AF, Gooya A, University of Sheffield: Sheffield, UK. Viva was held in 2017.

T16. Hua R. Non‑rigid Medical Image Registration with Extended Free Form Deformations: Modelling General Tissue Transitions. PhD Thesis. Supervisors (ordered): Frangi AF, Pozo JM, University of Sheffield: Sheffield, UK. Viva was held in 2017.

T15. Lange M. Exploration of the Human Purkinje Network in Virtual Populations. PhD Thesis. Supervisors (ordered): Frangi AF, Lassila T, University of Sheffield: Sheffield, UK. Viva was held in 2017.

T14. Castro‑Mateos I. Statistical Anatomical Modelling for Efficient and Personalized Spine Biomechanical Models. PhD Thesis. Supervisors (ordered): Frangi AF, Pozo JM, University of Sheffield: Sheffield, UK. Viva was held in 2015.

T13. Porras‑Perez AR. Multi‑cue Image Integration for Cardiac Tissue Characterization. Cum Laude. PhD Thesis. Supervisors (ordered): Piella G, Frangi AF, Universitat Pompeu Fabra: Barcelona, Spain. Viva was held in 2015.

T12. Geers AH. Hemodynamic Modeling of Cerebral Aneurysms. Cum Laude. PhD Thesis. Supervisors (ordered): Frangi AF, Larra‑ bide I, Universitat Pompeu Fabra: Barcelona, Spain. Viva was held in 2015.

T11. Hoogendoorn C. A Statistical Dynamic Cardiac Atlas for the Virtual Physiological Human: Construction and Application. Cum Laude. PhD Thesis. Supervisor: Frangi AF. Universitat Pompeu Fabra: Barcelona, Spain. Viva was held in 2014.

T10. Bogunovic H. Geometric Modeling and Characterization of the Circle of Willis. Cum Laude. PhD Thesis. Supervisors (ordered): Frangi AF, Pozo JM, Universitat Pompeu Fabra: Barcelona, Spain. Viva was held in 2012.

T9. Morales H. Endovascular Coiling and Its Influence on Intra‑aneurysmal Hemodynamics by Image‑based. Cum Laude. PhD Thesis. Supervisors (ordered): Frangi AF, Larrabide I, Universitat Pompeu Fabra: Barcelona, Spain. Viva was held in 2012.

T8. Whitmarsh T. 3D Reconstruction of the Proximal Femur and Lumbar Vertebrae from Dual‑energy X‑ray Absorptiometry for Osteoporotic Fracture Risk Assessment. Cum Laude. PhD Thesis. Supervisors (ordered): Frangi AF, Humbert L, Universitat Pompeu Fabra: Barcelona, Spain. Viva was held in 2012.

T7. Duchateau N. Statistical Atlases of Motion and Deformation for the Characterization of Crt Responders. Cum Laude. PhD Thesis. Supervisors (ordered): Frangi AF, De Craene M, Universitat Pompeu Fabra: Barcelona, Spain. Viva was held in 2012.

T6. Zhang C. Recovery of Cerebrovascular Morphodynamics from Time‑resolved Rotational Angiography. Cum Laude. PhD Thesis. Supervisors (ordered): Frangi AF, Villa‑Uriol MC, Universitat Pompeu Fabra: Barcelona, Spain. Viva was held in 2011.

T5. Tobon‑Gomez C. Three‑dimensional Statistical Shape Models for Cardiac Image Analysis. Cum Laude. PhD Thesis. Supervisor: Frangi AF. Universitat Pompeu Fabra: Barcelona, Spain. Viva was held in 2011.

T4. Pavani SK. Face Detection and Adaptive Face Recognition Systems. Cum Laude. PhD Thesis. Supervisors (ordered): Frangi AF, Delgado D, Universitat Pompeu Fabra: Barcelona, Spain. Viva was held in 2010.

T3. Butakoff C. Efficient Techniques for Statistical Shape Model Building and Fusion. Cum Laude. PhD Thesis. Supervisor: Frangi AF. Universidad de Zaragoza: Zaragoza, Spain. Viva was held in 2009.

T2. Oubel E. Registration‑based Motion and Deformation Analysis of Cardiovascular Image Sequences. Cum Laude. PhD Thesis. Supervisor: Frangi AF. Universidad de Zaragoza: Zaragoza, Spain. Viva was held in 2008.

T1. Sukno FM. Invariance and Reliability for Statistical Shape Models. Cum Laude. PhD Thesis. Supervisor: Frangi AF. Universidad de Zaragoza: Zaragoza, Spain. Viva was held in 2008.