UCSF Welcomes Faculty Members Congyu Liao, PhD, and Salil Soman, MD, MS
The University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) Department of Radiology and Biomedical Imaging is pleased to welcome Congyu Liao, PhD, and Salil Soman, MD, MS, to our faculty.
Dr. Liao joined the department in May as Assistant Professor In Residence and Technical Director at the Neuroimaging Technology Research Center (NTRC). He comes to UCSF from Stanford University, where he served as a postdoctoral scholar and instructor. Dr. Liao earned his PhD in Biomedical Engineering from Zhejiang University in 2018 and completed his postdoctoral training at the Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School under the mentorship of Dr. Kawin Setsompop.
Dr. Liao's research focuses on the development of advanced diffusion and quantitative MRI techniques, with applications in neurodevelopment and neurological disorders. He was recently awarded an NIH R01 grant as Principal Investigator to study infant brain development using mesoscale quantitative and diffusion MRI methods. His contributions have been recognized with Summa Cum Laude Merit Awards from the International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine (ISMRM) in 2019 and 2022, as well as the ISMRM Junior Fellow Award.
Dr. Soman joined the department in June as Associate Professor In Residence in Neuroradiology. He earned his MD from Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and completed his internship at Signature Healthcare Brockton Hospital. He returned to Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital for his residency, followed by a neuroradiology fellowship at Stanford University Medical Center and a research postdoctoral fellowship at Stanford Radiological Sciences Laboratory and the Palo Alto VA. Dr. Soman also holds an MS in computer science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Dr. Soman was most recently an assistant professor of radiology at Harvard Medical School and a staff neuroradiologist at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, where he also served as the associate director of the neuroradiology fellowship. A board-certified radiologist, Dr. Soman specializes in brain tumors, intracranial hemorrhage, neurodegenerative disorders, stroke, and traumatic brain injury. He is an active educator and has taught a broad range of neuroradiology topics to medical students, residents, and fellows.
Dr. Soman's research centers on MRI-based oxygen extraction fraction (OEF) mapping to assess cerebral metabolism and perfusion. He conducted the first trial using OEF mapping to differentiate multiple sclerosis lesions from cerebral small vessel ischemic disease and is expanding this work to study Alzheimer's disease, epilepsy, traumatic brain injury, and vascular dementia.
Please join us in welcoming Dr. Liao and Dr. Soman to UCSF!