Vivian S. Lee, M.D., Ph.D., M.B.A.

Senior Vice President, Vice Dean for Science and Chief Scientific Officer

Dr. Vivian S. Lee, Senior Vice President and Vice Dean for Science, Chief Scientific Officer, was previously Vice-Chair for Research in the Department of Radiology and is a Professor of Physiology and Neuroscience. A practicing MRI radiologist, Dr. Lee is currently principal investigator for two NIH R01 grants and co-investigator on several other NIH grants. She serves as a charter member of the Medical Imaging NIH study section as well as occasionally on NIDDK and NIBIB study sections. She is a Fellow and President-Elect of the International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine (ISMRM). On the editorial boards of leading journals in imaging, Dr. Lee has authored over 100 peer-reviewed research publications, and a recent textbook, Cardiovascular MRI: Physical Principles to Practical Protocols (Lippincott, 2006). During her five-year tenure as Vice-Chair for Research, she oversaw the creation of a research administration and infrastructure in Radiology to support research productivity and external funding success through mentorship, seed grants, and fostering of intra- and inter-departmental collaborations. Under her stewardship, NYU Radiology, which was unranked seven years ago, is now in the top-tier of NIH research funding, with an active corps of clinical researchers, 20 dedicated research scientists and over 60 full-time research personnel.

Dr. Lee’s research focuses on the development of quantitative functional MRI for the improved understanding of physiology and disease. Her multidisciplinary team of faculty collaborators, graduate students, and post-doctoral fellows has expertise in physics, mathematics, statistics, engineering, computer science and image analysis, and works closely with nephrologists, transplant surgeons, pathologists, and vascular surgeons. Much of the NIH-funded work has centered on developing methods for quantifying gadolinium tracer kinetics through the kidney and the measurement and modeling of renal function. Clinical applications include the improved diagnosis of renovascular disease and the noninvasive diagnosis of causes of acute renal transplant dysfunction. More recently, her group has begun to develop and apply similar imaging and modeling techniques to quantitative cancer imaging.

Dr. Lee graduated from Harvard-Radcliffe in three years and was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship to study at Oxford University, where she received a doctorate in medical engineering. Returning to Harvard Medical School, she earned her M.D. with honors and then, following an internship in General Surgery at Duke, completed her residency in Diagnostic Radiology there, where she also served as Chief Resident. She joined NYU as a fellow in Body and Cardiovascular MRI and Thoracic Imaging and became a member of the faculty in 1998. A member of Alpha Omega Alpha, in 2001 she received NYU’s Orloff Award for research. Dr. Lee completed an M.B.A. at NYU’s Stern School of Business in 2006. She was among Crain’s New York Business magazine’s “40 Under 40: New York’s Rising Stars.”