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Photo of Zannoni, Elena

elena.zannoni@austin.utexas.edu
Office Location: ETC 7.138

Elena Zannoni

Assistant Professor

Department Research Areas

Biomechanical and Biomedicine Engineering
Nuclear and Radiation Engineering

Research Interests

Ionizing Molecular Imaging Techniques and Instrumentation for Clinical and Preclinical Applications; Gamma and X-ray Imaging Solid-State Detectors; Design, Optimization and Validation of Adaptive Nuclear Medicine Imaging. Systems; Radiation Dosimetry, Radiation Spectrometry and Quantitative Imaging for Multifunctional Theragnostic Applications

Bio

Dr. Elena M. Zannoni is an assistant professor in the Walker Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin, as core faculty of the Nuclear and Radiation Engineering Program, adjuct faculty of Texas Robotics and with courtesy appointment in the Department of Diagnostic Medicine at the Dell Medical School.

Dr. Zannoni’s research focuses on the development of nuclear medicine imaging instrumentation and data analysis techniques for advanced applications in radiological science and molecular imaging. Since the beginning of her doctoral career, she has been involved in several NIH-funded multi-institutional and multi-disciplinary collaborations for the development of state-of-art imaging systems for clinical and preclinical applications. At the University of Texas at Austin, she directs the Translational Radiological Advanced Imaging Lab (TRAIL).

Dr. Zannoni received her Ph.D. in Bioengineering from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in 2021, and her M.Sc. degree (2015) with honors in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Pisa (Italy). Dr. Zannoni’s contributions have been recognized by several awards to young investigators by the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging (SNMMI) and the IEEE Nuclear and Plasma Sciences Society (NPSS), including the 2022 IEEE NPSS Edward J. Hoffman Early Career Development Award, the 2022 Rising Stars in EECS and the 2024 SNMMI Tracy L. Faber Memorial Award “for her contributions in advancing SPECT technology based on semiconductor detectors and new collimator designs”.

Active in the international imaging community, she is currently the vice-chair elect of the Imaging Data Science interest group of the World Molecular Imaging Society, and a member-elect of the Nuclear Medical and Imaging Sciences Committee of the IEEE Nuclear & Plasma Sciences Society (NPSS). In 2025-2027, she serves as the Instrumentation, Computational & Data Science chair for the World Molecular Imaging Congress program committee.

Educational Qualifications

  • Ph.D., Bioengineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (USA), 2021
  • M.S., Biomedical Engineering, University of Pisa (Italy), 2015
  • B.S., Biomedical Engineering, University of Pisa (Italy), 2013

Select Awards & Honors

  1. Scialog Fellow in Molecular Basis of Cognition, Research Corporation for Science Advancement (2024)
  2. Tracy Lynn Faber Memorial Award, Physics, Instrumentation, and Data Sciences Council, Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging (2024)
  3. SNMMI Future Leaders Academy, Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging (2023)
  4. Rising Star in EECS, University of Texas at Austin (2022)
  5. IEEE NPSS Edward J. Hoffman Early Career Development Grant, IEEE Nuclear & Plasma Sciences Society (2022)
  6. First Place in the Physics, Instrumentation and Data Sciences Council Young Investigator Award, Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging Annual Meeting (2021)
  7. First Place at IEEE Medical Imaging Conference Best Student Paper, IEEE Nuclear & Plasma Sciences Society, IEEE Medical Imaging Conference (2017)

Related Websites

https://sites.utexas.edu/zannoni/people/
https://nuclear.engr.utexas.edu/

Select Publications

Google Scholar