Associate Professor, Radiological Sciences
Associate Professor, Biomedical Engineering
Affiliated faculty, Beckman Laser Institute and Medical Clinic
Affiliated faculty, Chao Family Comprehensive Cancer Center
University of California, Irvine
_____________________
Medical Sciences, B-134
Irvine, CA 92697-5000
Email: liangzhx@hs.uci.edu

Biography

Dr. Xiang received postdoctoral training in medical physics at Stanford Medical School and was awarded the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) Prostate Cancer Postdoctoral Training Program at Stanford University from 2012-2015.

Dr. Xiang’s research focus is on creating innovative ultrasound imaging techniques that can be applied in clinical settings. In his laboratory, he and his colleagues had the privilege of being among the first researchers to develop x-ray-induced acoustic computed tomography (XACT). This technique has a wide range of potential applications in fields like radiation oncology (in vivo dosimetry) and interventional radiology. They also humbled to be leading the way in the development of protoacoustic imaging for in vivo range verification in proton therapy, as well as electroacoustic tomography (EAT) for monitoring electroporation.

See publications and citations in Google Scholar Citations.

Honors and Awards

Research

• BEST IN PHYSICS Award, The American Association of Physicists in Medicine (2024)
• Innovation in Medical Physics Award, The American Association of Physicists in Medicine (2024)
• Outstanding Mid-Career Faculty Research Award, UCI School of Medicine (2024)
• Faculty Innovation Fellow, University of California, Irvine (2021)
• NIH R37 (MERIT) Award, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health (2019)
• Research Scholar Award, American Cancer Society (2019)
• Postdoctoral Fellowship Award, Prostate Cancer Research Program, U.S. Department of Defense (2013-2015)
• Sylvia Sorkin Greenfield Award, Best paper published in Medical Physics in year 2007. The American Association of Physicists in Medicine (2008)

Teaching

• Lloyd G. and Joyce Austin Presidential Professorship (2020), University of Oklahoma
• Nancy L. Mergler Faculty Mentor Award for Undergraduate Research (student-nominated, the only recipient at University of Oklahoma in year 2017)
• Graduate Research Guide (GRG) program Award (1 of 5 awarded annually at University of Oklahoma) (Fall 2017)
• Graduate Research Guide (GRG) program Award (1 of 3 awarded annually at University of Oklahoma) (Spring 2016)

Publication Recognitions

• Featured in Editors’ Choice (https://www.nature.com/articles/s44172-023-00151-7 ) in year 2023 (2023)
• Featured by Applied Physics Letters, Wang et al. (November 15, 2021)
• Scilight by Applied Physics Letters, Wang et al. (November 15, 2021)
• Most downloaded paper, Photoacoustics, Samant et al. (May 2020)
• Top downloaded paper, Medical Physics, Hickling et al. (April 2020)
• Top 20 highly cited article, JIOHS, Robertson et al. (April 2018)
• Top 20 highly cited article, JIOHS, Yang et al. (January 2017)
• Cover article of Medical Physics, Medical Physics, Xiang et al. (January 2013)
• HOT TOPIC presentation, 2013 AAPM Annual Meeting, Xiang et al. (August 2013)
• Top 20 Most downloaded article, Medical Physics, Xiang et al. (January 2013)
• Editor’s pick article, Medical Physics, Xiang et al. (January 2013)

Student/Fellow awards

• Lauren Tidyman (Undergraduate student) – UROP fellow for summer 2024 (2024), University of California, Irvine
• Kristina Bjegovic (Ph.D. student) – ARCS Foundation Scholar Award (2023), US Achievement Rewards for College Scientists Foundation.
• Chloe Chua (Undergraduate student) – Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP) grant (2022), University of California, Irvine
• Kristina Bjegovic (Ph.D. student) – Ruth L. Kirschstein Institutional National Research Service Award (T32, 2021), National Institutes of Health (NIH)
• Siqi Wang (Ph.D. student) – SPIE Optics + Photonics Travel Grant (2020), the International Society for Optics and Photonics
• Pratik Samant (Ph.D. student) – 1st Place, 3 Minute Thesis Winner (2019), the University of Oklahoma
• Pratik Samant (Ph.D. student) – GCoE Dissertation Excellence Award (2019), the University of Oklahoma
• Elijah Robertson (Undergraduate student) – Regent’s Award for Outstanding Juniors (2019), the University of Oklahoma
• Shanshan Tang (Postdoc) – RSNA Trainee Research Prize (2015), Radiological Society of North America

Service

• Standing member on the Cancer Detection and Progression (CDP) Peer Review Committee, American Cancer Society (2024-2026).
• Conference chair of session “In Vivo Dosimetry and Image Guidance for FLASH Radiotherapy” at the American Association of Physicists in Medicine (AAPM) 65^th Annual Meeting, Houston, Texas (2023).
• Grant reviewer of Cancer Detection and Progression committee for American Cancer Society (2023).
• Conference chair of symposium on “Radiation and Ultrasound: from Imaging to Therapy” at the American Association of Physicists in Medicine (AAPM) 64^th Annual Meeting, Virtual (2022)
• Conference chair of session “3D imaging and tomography” at IEEE International Ultrasonics Symposium, Virtual (2021)
• JIOHS Editorial Board member (2021-2025)
• Conference chair of session “Radiation Dose Evaluation and Verification” at the American Association of Physicists in Medicine (AAPM) 63rd Annual Meeting, Virtual (2021)
• Conference chair of session “Advanced ultrasound imaging in clinical applications” at the American Association of Physicists in Medicine (AAPM) 61st Annual Meeting, San Antonio, Texas (2019)
• Grant reviewer of NIH study sections ZRG1 SBIB-Q 57 and SBIB-T (2019)
• Conference chair of session “Biomedical Photonics” at the 10th International Conference on Information Optics and Photonics (CIOP 2018), Beijing, China (2018)
• Grant reviewer of Ralph E. Powe Junior Faculty Enhancement Award at Oak Ridge Associated Universities (2018)
• Grant reviewer of Helmholtz-Russian Science Foundation Joint Research Groups, Russian Science Foundation (RSF)/ Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres (2018)
• Grant reviewer of Accelerator Stewardship, DOE Office of Science, U S Department of Energy (2014)
• Guest Associate Editor, Medical Physics Journal (2012-2014)

AFFILIATIONS

• Acoustical Society of America (ASA) (2018 – Present)
• Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) (2015 – Present)
• American Association of Physicists in Medicine (AAPM) (2012 – Present)
• International Society for Optical Engineering (SPIE) (2008 – Present)