Shaun Stone is a final year Ph.D. ERC studying Medical Imaging at the University of Aberdeen under the supervision of Professor Alison Murray. He is the deputy student lead of the Image Analysis group of the Scottish Imaging Network: A Platform for Scientific Excellence (SINAPSE), a consortium of seven Scottish universities. His research is titled “Cognitive Reserve Estimation Models from Brain MRI in Healthy Ageing: A Machine Learning Approach”, under the supervision of Professor Alison D. Murray (University of Aberdeen), Dr Roger Staff (NHS), Professor Joanna Wardlaw, Professor Craig Ritchie (University of Edinburgh) and Dr Robin Wolz (IXICO). Cosupervisors to this project at Dr Gordon Waiter and Dr Anca Sandu-Giuraniuc. His project is funded by SINAPSE and industry partners IXICO.

His project aims to identify the most important MR imaging biomarkers that influence differences in cognitive resilience. That is, given the life-course of an individual, what are the imaging characteristics that allow us to predict increased risk of cognitive impairment? Further, what factors provide resilience against age- and disease-related brain changes? He is passionate about computational neuroscience, artificial intelligence and computer-assisted diagnosis in medical imaging. Shaun completed his undergraduate (BSc) degree in Psychology with Neuroscience, and postgraduate (MSc) degree in Neuroimaging at Bangor University, North Wales - where he gained experience using a range of neuroimaging techniques. Shaun continues to learn, using his neuro-background to transfer into computational medicine and diagnostic imaging and is looking forward to his future career in research or industry, thanks to this opportunity.