Dr. Geoff Dougherty
Professor of Applied Physics and Medical Imaging
CSU Channel Islands

In a nutshell:

Born and raised in the same country as Van Morrison and Liam Neeson. I studied physics at Manchester University, did a post-baccalaureate teaching certificate at Leeds University, taught at a community college and then completed a PhD on DNA-drug interactions at Keele University, in between doing some DJing! This was followed by a post-doc stint investigating closed-circular DNA at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zurich.

I taught at the Science University of Malaysia; did research on DNA-drug binding using electron spin resonance at Monash University, Australia; and taught at the University of the South Pacific, Fiji and Oxford Brookes University.  After that I moved to Kuwait as Professor of Radiologic Sciences for what was supposed to be a 3-year stint, and stayed 10 years.

From there to sunny California in 2002, where I’m Professor of Applied Physics and Medical Imaging – trying to keep things fun. I was featured in the Channel Island’s Current magazine in Fall 2005, and our new Applied Physics major was highlighted in the Ventura Star in 2006. The Business and Technology partnership honored me as Faculty Leader of the Year in 2008. I’ve been trying to live a more laid-back life-style recently, but haven’t quite mastered it yet. I’ve always been keen on photography … now I’m getting into painting to connect with my inner self!

Fulbright:

I am a liaison for the Fulbright program at California State University Channel Islands. I did a six month sabbatical (July 2009 to January 2010) at QUT (Queensland University of Technology) and IHBI (Institute of Health and Biomedical Innovation – see IHBI Advances) in Brisbane, Australia as a Fulbright Senior Scholar. I worked with Professor Jim Pope on a project aimed at better understanding the structure of articular cartilage and the changes that occur in the early stages of osteoarthritis, using a special variant of MRI called diffusion tensor imaging (DTI). I established ongoing collaborations with several other research groups at QUT and its associated research institute, IHBI (Institute of Health and Biomedical Innovation), including a project with Associate Professor Clayton Adam on developing novel methods for automated measurement of three-dimensional spinal curvature in idiopathic scoliosis. I visited several research groups in New Zealand, and gave an invited keynote address to the Image and Vision Computing New Zealand (IVCNZ2009) conference in Wellington). I also visited several Universities in Malaysia Universiti Malaya (UM), Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) and Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM)), where I gave a number of seminars and provided advice on developing research programs.

The experience prompted me to write a guest comment to the American Journal of Physics describing the experience and encouraging others to apply for a Fulbright scholarship.

I joined the Fulbright Specialist Roster as a Specialist in Engineering Education/ Digital Imaging in 2013. My first project was at the Institut Teknologi Bandung (ITB) in Java, Indonesia in December 2013/January 2014, with visits to Diponegoro University (Semarang) and Satya Wacana Christian University (Salatiga – close to the magnificent 7th century Buddhist temple of Borobudor).

I visited ITB again the following year as a TWAS (The World Academy of Sciences) Visiting Expert.

My second project under the Fulbright Specialist program, in Spring 2018, was split between Diponegoro University (Semarang) and Airlangga University (see dancing in Surabaya) and included conducting workshops on image processing.

Updates:

Traveled again to Indonesia (Undip and Unair) in Oct-Dec 2022 …. as a Fulbright Senior Scholar. I’ll post details and photos soon.