2019 MIPS Alumni of the Year

Jessie Jokerst, PhD
Associate Professor of Nanoengineering, UC San Diego

September 4, 2019

This years World Molecular Imaging Congress (WMIC) was held in Montréal on September 4-7. MIPS held a reception for MIPS members and alumni attending the conference. For the second year, the MIPS Alumni of the Year has been awarded at the reception and we'd like to congratulate alumni Dr. Jessie Jokerst.

Dr. Jokerst completed a B.S. cum laude at Truman State University and a Ph.D. in Chemistry at UT Austin with John McDevitt. In 2009 he joined Dr. Gambhir's Multimodality Molecular Imaging Lab as a postdoc through 2014.

Dr. Jokerst is now an Associate Professor in the Department of Nanoengineering at UC San Diego where his research focuses on nanoparticle based imaging. Prior to UCSD, Dr. Jokerst was an NIH and American Cancer Society postdoctoral fellow as well as an Instructor of Radiology at Stanford. He is the recipient of the prestigious NIH Pathway to Independence Award (2013), The NIH New Innovator Award (2016), and the NSF CAREER Award (2019).

Dr. Jokerst has published nearly 70 articles in peer-reviewed journals and secured funding by ROO, S10, and DP2 grants from NIH for up to $3M. His research interests lie in the field of molecular imaging with an empasis on the use of nanoparticle contrast to improve the amount of signal and type of signal collected from living subjects. He is particularly interested in ultrasound and photoacoustics. He's been able to do very innovative work including low-cost approaches using light emitting doides in photoacoustics.

Congratulations, Dr. Jokerst!