People & Boards
Center Coordinators
Prof. Dr. Dagmar Kainmüller
Spokesperson for Helmholtz Imaging & Head of Research Unit at MDC
Prof. Dr. Klaus Maier-Hein
DKFZ
Prof. Dr. Christian Schroer
DESY
Prof. Dr. Lena Maier-Hein
DKFZ
Prof. Dr. Thoralf Niendorf
MDC
Engineering & Support Unit DESY
Our support team at DESY offers support and services to the Helmholtz Imaging Community. Our most prominent services are Helmholtz Imaging Modalities and Storage. We work on requests submitted to the Support Hub, on Collaborations, and directly support the Projects. Particular focus is on the early stages of the imaging pipeline. Research activities include development and application of deep learning methods for image analysis, e. g. segmentation, object detection and classification. Find us on CONNECT!
Dr. Philipp Heuser
Head of Support Team at DESY
Research Unit DESY
At the beginning of the imaging pipeline, data is acquired in a physical process measuring a metric which represents the interaction of a given probe with a sample. The physics of these interactions can be modelled mathematically. To form an image the model has to then be inverted, which is a challenging tasks due its ill-posedness, i.e. measurement errors leading to instabilities in the inversion or data being missing. Such so-called inverse problems are at the heart of almost any image formation process and their solution by modern regularization methods are the focus of our Research Unit at DESY. The goal of this unit is to strengthen the expertise in the mathematical field of inverse problems and to develop new modalities in specific domains by developing improved forward models, regularization methods and computational algorithms. Find us on CONNECT!
Engineering & Support Unit DKFZ
The Applied Computer Vision Lab, our support team at DKFZ, is dedicated to catalyzing research in Helmholtz and beyond through customized image analysis solutions. Specifically, we support researchers in the annotation of image data, build tailored AI algorithms to optimally solve their problems, provide out-of-the-box solutions that can be applied across domains and accelerate the development of new algorithms. Finally, we are dedicated to improving algorithm evaluation through organizing competitions, supporting the choice of appropriate metrics and evaluation schemes. Find us on CONNECT!
Kris Dreher
Head of Engineering and Support Unit at DKFZ
Engineering & Support Unit MDC
Our support team at MDC is developing generic image processing and analysis algorithms and tools. These tools are applied across all imaging scales from submolecular resolution to aerial remote sensing imagery. In order to provide a unified entry point for how to use these tools, we develop and maintain Helmholtz Imaging Solutions. Find us on CONNECT!
Research Unit MDC
The Research Unit at MDC focuses on integrating heterogeneous imaging data across modalities, scales, and time. We develop concepts and algorithms for generic processing, stitching, fusion, and visualization of large, high-dimensional datasets. Our aim is to enable seamless analysis of complex imaging data without restrictions on the underlying modalities.
Prof. Dr. Dagmar Kainmüller
Spokesperson for Helmholtz Imaging & Head of Research Unit at MDC
Research Unit DKFZ
The Research Unit at DKFZ focuses on the downstream stages of the imaging pipeline – specifically, the development, validation, and deployment of advanced AI-based methods for automated image analysis. These phases are critical for extracting high-level, domain-relevant information from complex imaging data. Our work addresses algorithmic challenges in interpreting, quantifying, and validating image-derived information, with the overarching goal of enabling trustworthy, robust, and generalizable AI-driven analysis. Find us on CONNECT: IMSY & IML.
Prof. Dr. Klaus Maier-Hein
DKFZ
Prof. Dr. Lena Maier-Hein
DKFZ
Management Unit
We at the management unit of Helmholtz Imaging are responsible for the operation of the platform, the implementation of the strategy and the integration into the Helmholtz Association. In our team science and PR & outreach managers work hand in hand to coordinate the activities of the platform and the team play of its support and research units.
Organization of workshops and seminars, educational outreach, and the project funding line and facilitation of the meetings of the Helmholtz Imaging Steering Board and the Helmholtz Imaging Scientific Advisory Committee are just a few examples of how our team at DESY supports the community.
Dr. Sara Krause-Solberg
Scientific Coordinator
Steering Board
The Steering Board supervises the Helmholtz Imaging Team. The board consults the platform in decisions relevant for Helmholtz Imaging as a whole.
Prof. Dr. Wolfgang zu Castell
GFZ
Prof. Dr. Heinz-Wilhelm Hübers
DLR / Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
Prof. Dr. Angelika Humbert
AWI
Prof. Dr. Christian Kübel
KIT
Dr. Francisco Garcia-Moreno
HZB
Prof. Dr. Anke-Susanne Müller
KIT
Dr. Hanno Scharr
FZJ
Prof. Dr. Tony Stöcker
DZNE
Scientific Advisory Committee
External scientific advice for the development of Helmholtz Imaging will be provided by the Scientific Advisory Committee (SAC). The SAC comprises national and international experts outside of the Helmholtz Association and also advises the Helmholtz Imaging Steering Board on all scientific aspects and the overall development of the platform. The members of the SAC are appointed by the President of the Helmholtz Association.
Prof. Dr. Joost Batenburg
Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica (CWI), Netherlands
Prof. Pier Luigi Dragotti
Imperial College London, UK
Prof. Michal Irani
Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel
Prof. Dr. Ron Kikinis
Harvard Medical School, Boston MA, USA
Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Peter Maaß
Universität Bremen
Prof. Michal Neeman
Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel
Dr. Alexander Rack
European Synchrotron Radiation Facility - ESRF, France
Prof. Dr. Ing. Ribana Roscher
Forschungszentrum Jülich / Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn
Prof. Dr. Gabriele Steidl
Technische Universität Berlin
Prof. Dr. Michela Taufer
The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, USA
Prof. Dr. Ing. Thomas Wiegand
Fraunhofer Institute for Telecommunications, Berlin
Alumni
Kyle Harrington
Team Lead for Machine Learning, Chan Zuckerberg Institute for Advanced Biological Imaging
Dr. rer. nat. Fabian Isensee
Division Manager of Medical Image Computing, DKFZ
Dr. Paul Jäger
Senior Research Scientist, Google DeepMind
Ali Emre Kavur
Software Engineer, Carnival Maritime
Lorenz Kuger
Machine Learning Research Engineer, Apple Camera & Photos
Lukas Klein
Postdoctoral Researcher, EPFL
Jérôme Lüscher
Machine Learning Scientist, Aignostics
Tim Rädsch
Postdoctoral Researcher