October 2016
Christiane K. Kuhl was born in 1966 in Bonn, Germany. She obtained a medical degree from Bonn University in 1991. After a residency in radiology from 1992 to 1996, and a doctoral thesis on 31P magnetic resonance spectroscopy in mitochondrial encephalomyopathies (obtained with summa cum laude), she undertook a residency in neurosurgery in 1996–1997. She completed it with a fellowship in neuro-radiology in 2002, and is a board certified neuro-radiologist. Since 2004, she has been Professor of Radiology and Vice Chairman of the Radiological department, as well as Director of the Division of oncologic imaging and interventional therapy of Bonn University.
Her main fields of interest are breast imaging, oncological imaging and interventional oncology (minimally-invasive therapy of cancers and metastases), as well as high field MR imaging. Professor Kuhl’s work on early and non-invasive diagnosis of breast cancer has been frequently saluted by her peers. She was notably the first woman to receive the European Magnetic Resonance Award (2006) and her research is available and documented on both sides of the Atlantic. She received the American College of Radiology Imaging Network award for ‘Outstanding Contributions’ in 2004 and an Honorary Membership at the Royal College of Radiologists Breast Group (UK) in 2006. Back home, she has received the Award for Technical Innovation of the German Federal Ministry of Science and Education (2000) and the ‘Holthusen-Ring’, the highest award for scientific achievements of the German Radiological Society (2003).
Her contribution to the medical sphere has also been recognised by other specialties such as oncology. During the recent American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) congress, the paper she and her colleagues presented was selected as ‘Best of ASCO’, for their discovery that, to detect pre-invasive breast cancer (DCIS), the addition of high-resolution MRI offers a significantly higher sensitivity compared with state-of-the-art mammography.
Christiane K. Kuhl belongs to a number of prestigious subspecialty and international societies such as the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA), the International Society of Magnetic Resonance in Medicine (ISMRM), and the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO). She is also a member of the ‘Working Group on Breast MRI’ at the National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, Maryland, US, and member of the Breast Section of ACRIN (American College of Radiology Imaging Network).
In addition to 23 review articles, about 240 citeable scientific abstracts and 7 book chapters, she authored 76 original articles. These latter yielded a total of 326 impact factors – a number that indicates the quality of the respective publications. She is associate editor and consultant to the editor of Radiology, and a member of the scientific editorial board of RöFo (Journal of the German Radiological Society), and a peer reviewer for Journal of Magnetic Resonance, Journal of Clinical Oncology European Journal of Cancer, and Nature Medicine, among others.
In recognition of her outstanding contributions to basic and applied research in medical magnetic resonance, particularly in breast imaging, Prof. Dr. med. Christiane K. Kuhl is invited to be an Honorary Lecturer of the European Congress of Radiology. She will present the Peter E. Peters – Honorary Lecture entitled ‘New paradigms in breast imaging’.
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