Richard Frayne

Scientist

Seaman Family MR Research Centre, Foothills Med Ctr

Profesor

Radiology and Clinical Neurosciences

Deputy Director

Hotchkiss Brain Institute

BASc - Electrical Engineering

University of Waterloo, 1989

PhD - Medical Biophysics

University of Western Ontario, 1994

Fellowship - Medical Physics and Radiology

University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1996


Research Activities and Research Training

Research Activites

  • Development and application of new imaging techniques and tools in humans
  • Study, detection and treatment of neurovascular disease and brain cancer
  • Bridging natural science and engineering through to clinical application
  • Collaborates with other researchers on the imaging of ALS, concussion, and epilepsy

Research Training

Richard Frayne's research training philosophy expects all of his students and fellows to further their personal development in four key areas: 1) fundamental knowledge, research 2) skills and 3) outputs, as well as 4) academic leadership. These expectations provide the foundation for and serve to underwrite the future success of his trainees. A commitment to EDI is central to his research program and he takes active steps to ensure that I continue to lead a diverse group that values contributions from all members. In addition, he strongly encourages his trainee to become leaders in their field and advocates very strongly for their participation in Open Science and continues promotion of trainee-led workshops and challenges.

Over more than twenty years, his over 100 trainees have been very successful in their subsequent careers or research training (60 undergraduate students and medical students, 22 MSc, 15 PhD and 18 post-doctoral fellows). Nine trainees have gone on to become university professors (including one who served as a department head, another as a vice chair, and two as Canada Research Chairs), many have undertaken leadership roles in companies and a few have followed an entrepreneurship opportunity.

The now completed NSERC CREATE I3T Program (2012-8), which Frayne led, built upon on his approach and prepared Calgary students for this diversity of opportunities. Many key program elements continue in the Medical Imaging Graduate Specialization. Frayne also helped shape the Biomedical Engineering Graduate Program including obtaining direct government support (2009), serving as the chair of its curriculum committee (2004-7), and was one of its inaugural Associate Directors (2010-6). He was also a member of the Medical Science Graduate Executive Committee (2012-7) and the Hotchkiss Brain Institute Education Committee (2012-7).


Biography

Richard Frayne is a Professor (with tenure) in the Departments of Radiology and Clinical Neuroscience, a member and the Deputy Director of the Hotchkiss Brain Institute (HBI), and an associate member of the Libin Cardiovascular Institute, all in the Cumming School of Medicine at the University of Calgary. He directs the Vascular Imaging Laboratory of the Seaman Family Centre, Foothills Medical Centre, Alberta Health Services and from 2010-7 was the Centre’s Scientific Director. He was a Canada Research Chair in Image Science (2003-13) and held the Hopewell Professorship in Brain Imaging (2010-24).

He has a BASc (Electrical Engineering, 1989) from the University of Waterloo and PhD from the University of Western Ontario (Medical Biophysics, 1994), and completed a post-doctoral fellowship in Medical Physics and Radiology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (1994-6). His research focuses on the development and application of new imaging techniques and tools for the study, detection and treatment of cerebrovascular disease in humans, bridging natural science and engineering through to clinical application.

He has over 200 published, peer-reviewed publications, and given over 125 invited talks and over 550 scholarly presentations (h-index: 57, >16,700 citations, Google Scholar). He received the Alumni Achievement Medal from the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Waterloo in 2018 and was elected a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences in 2021. (March 2024)



Awards

  • HJM Barnett Award, Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada (2000)
  • Canada Research Chair (2003-13)
  • Hopewell Professor of Brain Imaging, University of Calgary (2010-24)
  • Alumni Achievement Medal, Faculty of Engineering, University of Waterloo (2018)
  • Fellow, Canadian Academy of Health Sciences (2021)