The investigator: Elizabeth krupinski, Phd
By Sam Marie Engle
The best prep for becoming an award-winning pioneer in imaging sciences research is to spend your summers managing a restaurant down the shore.
“It taught me an awful lot about management, keeping cool,” Elizabeth Krupinski says of the 13 years her family owned and operated a restaurant on Long Beach Island, a beautiful stretch of sand and surf on the New Jersey coast. “My parents put a lot of trust in us; it was my mom’s restaurant, but we all helped. You have to develop great skills to manage the staff, the crowds. You have to be organized, cut to the chase, and prioritize.”
The Jersey Shore (place not show) restauranteur credits those years with molding her natural tendency to be in charge into the leadership acumen she uses today as the Department of Radiology and Imaging Sciences’ vice chair for research. Now in her eighth year with the department, she’s as excited today about her work as she was when she first arrived. That’s because she gets to do what she loves most: molding the next generation of scientists. “I love mentoring junior faculty as they take off in their research careers. When they run into brick walls, I knock them down.” She says this with a glint of glee.
“It taught me an awful lot about management, keeping cool,” Elizabeth Krupinski says of the 13 years her family owned and operated a restaurant on Long Beach Island, a beautiful stretch of sand and surf on the New Jersey coast. “My parents put a lot of trust in us; it was my mom’s restaurant, but we all helped. You have to develop great skills to manage the staff, the crowds. You have to be organized, cut to the chase, and prioritize.”
The Jersey Shore (place not show) restauranteur credits those years with molding her natural tendency to be in charge into the leadership acumen she uses today as the Department of Radiology and Imaging Sciences’ vice chair for research. Now in her eighth year with the department, she’s as excited today about her work as she was when she first arrived. That’s because she gets to do what she loves most: molding the next generation of scientists. “I love mentoring junior faculty as they take off in their research careers. When they run into brick walls, I knock them down.” She says this with a glint of glee.
The Focus for 2023
“This year, this job, is about everybody else,” she says. “I’m still doing my own research, but my main focus is getting the Research division through the move into HSRB-II and poised for making significant advancements.”
HSRB-II is Emory’s Health Sciences Research Building II, a 350,000-square-foot center for biomedical research. It opens this spring and includes lab, office and meeting space for several Emory Radiology research teams including the Radiopharmaceutical Discovery Lab, the Center for Systems Imaging Core, and key MRI researchers.
Dr. Krupinski firmly believes in and has organized the department’s research division to foster collaborative, multidisciplinary approaches to scientific discovery. This year, as part of the department’s strategic planning process, she will lead the division through rethinking its research teams and priorities. “It won’t be easy, especially with the move into HSRBII. Things will arise, but new opportunities abound,” she says.
Getting Here
While Dr. Krupinski knew her career would involve teaching and research, getting into imaging sciences happened “by pure chance.” It’s a surprise answer for someone who prizes organization and planning.
She explains. “My undergrad was all about neurobiology behavior, understanding the visual system. When I got to Montclair State, where I did my masters, my advisor was interested in visual perception and the arts, but I wanted to do something medically related. His old advisor was at Penn working on medical imaging perception and looking for a research assistant. My advisor encouraged me to go, so I did. Medical imaging perception became my focus—it was the topic of my doctoral dissertation (she earned her PhD in experimental psychology from Temple University) and has been my focus ever since.”
The goal of Dr. Krupinski's research is to improve our understanding of the perceptual and cognitive mechanisms underlying the interpretation of medical images in order to reduce errors, improve training, and optimize the reading environment. The ultimate outcome, of course, is improving patient care and outcomes.
Her work has been so influential, so important, she’s been named a Fellow of the Society for Imaging Informatics, the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering, the international society for optics and photonics (SPIE, which doesn’t capitalize their name), and the American Telemedicine Association. She was named the Most Influential Radiology Researcher by Aunt Minnie and has been lauded with SPIE’s Harrison H. Barrett Award in Medical Imaging, RSNA’s Honored Educator and Outstanding Researcher awards, and more.
Natural Selection
Dr. Krupinski lives by two slogans. “The first is from Dennis the Menace: the best thing you can do is to get very good at being you. The other one is excelsior (the state motto of New York where she was born),” which translated from Latin means “higher,” or more loosely, “onward and upward.”
It’s easy to see their influence on both her professional and personal pursuits. When not at work, Dr. Krupinski heads outdoors. “Traveling, hiking, making up things to do in the backyard, any kind of physical activity,” recharges her batteries. She’s ¾ of her way toward her goal of visiting all 63 national parks and can almost always be found off the beaten path. “I love to discover new places. I’m afraid I’ll miss out on something so I’m always looking to go somewhere new.”
When asked where her heart is, she pauses. “That’s the hardest question to answer. If I had to narrow it down, my heart really is in the outdoors. Interacting with and being part of nature and experiencing what the world has to offer. That really is it.”
Indeed it is: Elizabeth Krupinski, the leader, the scientist, the adventurer is charged by discovery. Naturally.
“This year, this job, is about everybody else,” she says. “I’m still doing my own research, but my main focus is getting the Research division through the move into HSRB-II and poised for making significant advancements.”
HSRB-II is Emory’s Health Sciences Research Building II, a 350,000-square-foot center for biomedical research. It opens this spring and includes lab, office and meeting space for several Emory Radiology research teams including the Radiopharmaceutical Discovery Lab, the Center for Systems Imaging Core, and key MRI researchers.
Dr. Krupinski firmly believes in and has organized the department’s research division to foster collaborative, multidisciplinary approaches to scientific discovery. This year, as part of the department’s strategic planning process, she will lead the division through rethinking its research teams and priorities. “It won’t be easy, especially with the move into HSRBII. Things will arise, but new opportunities abound,” she says.
Getting Here
While Dr. Krupinski knew her career would involve teaching and research, getting into imaging sciences happened “by pure chance.” It’s a surprise answer for someone who prizes organization and planning.
She explains. “My undergrad was all about neurobiology behavior, understanding the visual system. When I got to Montclair State, where I did my masters, my advisor was interested in visual perception and the arts, but I wanted to do something medically related. His old advisor was at Penn working on medical imaging perception and looking for a research assistant. My advisor encouraged me to go, so I did. Medical imaging perception became my focus—it was the topic of my doctoral dissertation (she earned her PhD in experimental psychology from Temple University) and has been my focus ever since.”
The goal of Dr. Krupinski's research is to improve our understanding of the perceptual and cognitive mechanisms underlying the interpretation of medical images in order to reduce errors, improve training, and optimize the reading environment. The ultimate outcome, of course, is improving patient care and outcomes.
Her work has been so influential, so important, she’s been named a Fellow of the Society for Imaging Informatics, the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering, the international society for optics and photonics (SPIE, which doesn’t capitalize their name), and the American Telemedicine Association. She was named the Most Influential Radiology Researcher by Aunt Minnie and has been lauded with SPIE’s Harrison H. Barrett Award in Medical Imaging, RSNA’s Honored Educator and Outstanding Researcher awards, and more.
Natural Selection
Dr. Krupinski lives by two slogans. “The first is from Dennis the Menace: the best thing you can do is to get very good at being you. The other one is excelsior (the state motto of New York where she was born),” which translated from Latin means “higher,” or more loosely, “onward and upward.”
It’s easy to see their influence on both her professional and personal pursuits. When not at work, Dr. Krupinski heads outdoors. “Traveling, hiking, making up things to do in the backyard, any kind of physical activity,” recharges her batteries. She’s ¾ of her way toward her goal of visiting all 63 national parks and can almost always be found off the beaten path. “I love to discover new places. I’m afraid I’ll miss out on something so I’m always looking to go somewhere new.”
When asked where her heart is, she pauses. “That’s the hardest question to answer. If I had to narrow it down, my heart really is in the outdoors. Interacting with and being part of nature and experiencing what the world has to offer. That really is it.”
Indeed it is: Elizabeth Krupinski, the leader, the scientist, the adventurer is charged by discovery. Naturally.