Leif Østergaard Professor, Center of Functionally Integrative Neuroscience, University of Aarhus

Professor of Experimental Neuroradiology, Leif Østergaard, M.D., M.Sc., Ph.D., D.Med. is head of the Neuroradiology Research Unit at Aarhus Hospital and head of the Danish National Research Foundation’s Center of Functionally Integrative Neuroscience (CFIN), which is a cross disciplinary brain research center under the Clinical Institute at the University of Aarhus.

The center does both basic research – trying to map out the human brain and how it reacts and adjusts to effects of the surrounding physical and social environment - and also medically directed research, trying to find new methods to improved diagnosis and treatment of different neurological diseases, like Parkinson’s disease, dementia, stroke and depression.

The special research area of Leif Østergaard is Functional Haemodynamics. The functional haemodynamics projects falls into a methodological section, applying basic physics, mathmatical modeling and image processing in optimizing techniques to study cerebral haemodynamics by dynamic susceptibility contrast MRI. In a parallel effort, these techniques are applied in identifying mechanisms that integrate cerebral haemodynamics and neuroenergetics. The research of Leif Østergaard has resulted in new brain imaging techniques which are now used worldwide, especially in connection to treatment of stroke patients.

Leif Østergaard is also the initiator of a closer integration between scientific research and treatment of patients in the County of Aarhus. The combination of the basic research and the new advanced imaging techniques developed by Leif Østergaard and CFIN are used e.g in the treatment of stroke patients at the Neurological Department at Aarhus Hospital.

Leif Østergaard is the author and co-author of over 90 scientific articles about brain imaging and works with research laboratories within this field all over the world. He is also a frequently used guest lecturer at international scientific conferences and is among other things a member of the board in the International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine (ISMRM).