Professor Fraser J L Robb

PhD

Clinical Medicine, School of Medicine and Population Health

Honorary Professor

fraser.robb@ge.com
The Medical School

Full contact details

Professor Fraser J L Robb
Clinical Medicine, School of Medicine and Population Health
The Medical School
Beech Hill Road
Sheffield
S10 2RX
Profile

For enquiries, please contact – iicd-om-operational@sheffield.ac.uk

I am currently the Chief Technology Leader for RF Coils working within GE’s MRI business. Recently, I have been part of the team that delivered revolutionary Air TechnologyTM MRI blankets to the market place.

Prior to that I was a Research Assistant Professor at the Dartmouth College in New Hampshire (USA) working with Professor Harold Swartz working on 1.1GHz resonators and instrumentation for detection of free radicals and measurement of tissue oxygen.

I attended the University of Aberdeen and received a MSc degree in Medical Physics in 1992 and a PhD (1998) studying with Professors David Lurie and James Hutchison. During this time I was imbued with a fascination for novel imaging methods including PEDRI, LODESR and Field-Cycled MRI.

I also have a BSc degree in Applied Physics from the University of Strathclyde (1990). I am both a Chartered Physicist and Chartered Engineer registered with the Institute of Physics. I have more than 40 patents issued or pending.

Research interests
  • Flexible MRI Coil Technology.
  • Development of Phased Arrays for Lung, Neonatal and Pediatric MRI.
  • Imaging using the Dynamic Nuclear Polarization effect or other mechanisms of Hyperpolarization.
  • Proton Electron Double Resonance Imaging and LODESR Imaging of free radicals.
  • Field-Cycled MRI.
  • MRI Simulation.

Current projects:

  • Wireless and Wearable MRI Coils.
  • Fast Switching Circuits for MRI Coils.
  • Multinuclear Coils phased arrays and Tx coils.
  • Pediatric and Neonatal MRI.
Teaching interests

I have enjoyed supervising many MSc and PhD projects in conjunction with a variety of institutions especially at University of Sheffield!

I also support the teaching goals on the GE Healthcare’s Advanced Course in Engineering, which has been running for more than 100 years.

Professional activities and memberships

I am active member of ISMRM and the Institute of Physics.

Key Publications

See all publications on ResearchGate

Barrett T, Riemer F, McLean MA, Kaggie JD, Robb F, Warren AY, Graves MJ, Gallagher FA. (2019) Molecular imaging of the prostate: Comparing total sodium concentration quantification in prostate cancer and normal tissue using dedicated 13C and 23 Na endorectal coils. J Magn Reson Imaging, 51(1): 90-97.

Winkler SA, Corea J, Lechêne B, O'Brien K, Bonanni JR, Chaudhari A, Alley M, Taviani V, Grafendorfer T, Robb F, Scott G, Pauly J, Lustig M, Arias AC, Vasanawala S. (2019) Evaluation of a Flexible 12-Channel Screen-printed Pediatric MRI Coil. Radiology, 291(1): 180-185.

Darnell D, Cuthbertson J, Robb F, Song AW, Truong TK. (2019) Integrated radio-frequency/wireless coil design for simultaneous MR image acquisition and wireless communication. Magn Reson Med, 81(3): 2176-2183.

Maunder A, Rao M, Robb F, Wild JM. (2019) Optimization of steady-state free precession MRI for lung ventilation imaging with 19F C3 F8 at 1.5T and 3T. Magn Reson Med, 81(2): 1130-1142.

Maunder A, Rao M, Robb F, Wild JM. (2018) Comparison of MEMS switches and PIN diodes for switched dual tuned RF coils. Magn Reson Med, 80(4): 1746-1753.

Barrett T, Riemer F, McLean MA, Kaggie J, Robb F, Tropp JS, Warren A, Bratt O, Shah N, Gnanapragasam VJ, Gilbert FJ, Graves MJ, Gallagher FA. (2018) Quantification of Total and Intracellular Sodium Concentration in Primary Prostate Cancer and Adjacent Normal Prostate Tissue With Magnetic Resonance Imaging. Invest Radiol, 53(8): 450-456.

Miloushev VZ, Granlund KL, Boltyanskiy R, Lyashchenko SK, DeAngelis LM, Mellinghoff IK, Brennan CW, Tabar V, Yang TJ, Holodny AI, Sosa RE, Guo YW, Chen AP, Tropp J, Robb F, Keshari KR. (2018) Metabolic Imaging of the Human Brain with Hyperpolarized 13C Pyruvate Demonstrates 13C Lactate Production in Brain Tumor Patients. Cancer Res, 78(14): 3755-3760.

Darnell D, Ma Y, Wang H, Robb F, Song AW, Truong TK. (2018) Adaptive integrated parallel reception, excitation, and shimming (iPRES-A) with microelectromechanical systems switches. Magn Reson Med, 80(1):371-379.

McGee KP, Stormont RS, Lindsay SA, Taracila V, Savitskij D, Robb F, Witte RJ, Kaufmann TJ, Huston J 3rd, Riederer SJ, Borisch EA, Rossman PJ. (2018) Characterization and evaluation of a flexible MRI receive coil array for radiation therapy MR treatment planning using highly decoupled RF circuits. Phys Med Biol, 63(8):08NT02.

Byron K, Robb F, Stang P, Vasanawala S, Pauly J, Scott G. (2018) An RF-gated wireless power transfer system for wireless MRI receive arrays. Concept Magn Reson B, 47B(4): e21360.

Murbach M, Neufeld E, Samaras T, Córcoles J, Robb FJ, Kainz W, Kuster N. (2016) Pregnant women models analyzed for RF exposure and temperature increase in 3T RF shimmed birdcages. Magn Reson Med, 77(5): 2048-2056.

Bulumulla SB, Park KJ, Fiveland E, Iannotti J, Robb F. (2017) MEMS switch integrated radio frequency coils and arrays for magnetic resonance imaging. Rev Sci Instrum, 88(2): 025003.

Lu JY, Grafendorfer T, Zhang T, Vasanawala S, Robb F, Pauly JM, Scott GC. (2016) Depletion-Mode GaN HEMT Q-Spoil Switches for MRI Coils. IEEE Trans Med Imaging, 35(12): 2558-2567.

Zhang T, Grafendorfer T, Cheng JY, Ning P, Rainey B, Giancola M, Ortman S, Robb FJ, Calderon PD, Hargreaves BA, Lustig M, Scott GC, Pauly JM, Vasanawala SS. (2016) A semiflexible 64-channel receive-only phased array for pediatric body MRI at 3T. Magn Reson Med, 76(3): 1015-21.

Daniels CJ, McLean MA, Schulte RF, Robb FJ, Gill AB, McGlashan N, Graves MJ, Schwaiger M, Lomas DJ, Brindle KM, Gallagher FA. (2016) A comparison of quantitative methods for clinical imaging with hyperpolarized 13C-pyruvate. NMR Biomed, 29(4):387-99.