October 27, 2017
Ulrike Dydak is Associate Professor of Health Sciences and Director of the Purdue Life Science MRI Facility. She further holds adjunct appointments with the Radiology and Imaging Science department at IU School of Medicine, the biomedical engineering department at Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI), and a courtesy appointment with the Speech, Language and Hearing Science Department at Purdue University. Dr. Dydak received her MS in physics from the University of Vienna, Austria, and did her PhD and postdoc in Medical Imaging at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETHZ), Zürich, Switzerland.
Dr. Dydak and her research group study how occupational exposure to welding fumes affect the brain and can lead to Parkinsonism. Using novel magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and spectroscopy (MRS) techniques, she explores brain metal accumulation in welders as a function of exposure, and how this leads to neurochemical, functional, and structural changes in the brain. For this research, she received the Outstanding New Environmental Scientist Award by NIEHS, as well as the Purdue Chapter Sigma Xi Midcareer Research Award. The capability of measuring in vivo levels of the neurotransmitter gamma amino butyric acid (GABA) also led to numerous collaborations studying neurodegenerative, neurodevelopmental and psychiatric disorders, ranging from movement disorders, over depression and panic disorder to autism.
In 2015 Dr. Dydak received an NIH S10 instrumentation grant to establish the Purdue Life Science MRI facility, which started operation in fall 2016. She also serves as charter member of the NIH MEDI study section and as vice chair of the ISMRM Psychiatric MRI and MRS study group.
