Biomedical Engineering Research at the ISIS Center

Seong K. Mun

Short Biography

Seong K. Mun : Dr. Seong K. Mun, Director of the ISIS Center and Professor Radiology, is keenly interested in the application of medical imaging, information and communication technologies in a variety of healthcare settings, including hospitals, homes and other environments. In the 1980s and ‘90s, Dr. Mun devoted most of his academic efforts to developing digital image management and communication systems (IMAC) in partnership with the Department of Defense and a few select medical imaging companies. He also developed and deployed a global teleradiology system linking field hospitals in Bosnia, Hungary and Saudi Arabia with the Lanstuhle Army Medical Center in Germany. Taking advantage of emergent telecommunication technology, Dr. Mun developed a series of telemedicine programs for pathology, radiology, nephrology, emergency medicine and humanitarian assistance and disaster relief. Utilizing internet capabilities, Dr. Mun also designed and implemented several web-based chronic illness management systems for diabetes and home monitoring. Dr. Mun received a PhD in computational molecular physics from the State University of New York, Albany, and completed a post doctoral fellowship in medical physics at the University of Colorado. His research in medical imaging began with Paul Lauterbur, PhD, a recent Nobel Laureate, in Stonybrook, NY, where Dr. Mun experimented with manganese-based magnetic resonance (MR) image contract enhancement techniques. As a managing physicist in the MR development program at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital in New York, Dr. Mun obtained one of the first MR sodium images of the brain in the early 1980s, before he joined the Faculty at Georgetown University. Once at Georgetown, Dr. Mun founded the Imaging Science and Information System (ISIS) Center to expand his endeavors to develop research programs that address complex problems with a team of multidisciplinary research scientists. With the help of ISIS Faculty and University leadership, Dr. Mun has successfully established the ISIS Center as a leader in biomedical research with a staff of about 65 and an annual budget of $7,000,000. Dr. Mun also manages federal relations for several congressionally supported special interests projects at the Georgetown University Medical Center. Dr. Mun suggests a good golf game is essential for the creative mind.