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Zi Yang, PhD

Biography

Zi Yang is from a historic city, Xi’an, in China. There, she received her B.S. in Biomedical Engineering from Xi’an Jiaotong University in 2016. She then obtained her M.S. in Medical Physics from Duke University in 2018 and Ph.D. in Medical Physics from UT Southwestern Medical Center in 2023. Zi’s doctoral research mainly focused on applying AI techniques to enhance radiation therapy. In her free time, she enjoys playing Lego, going to movies and concerts with friends, exploring restaurants, hiking, and traveling with her camera.

Zi joined the Stanford University Medical Physics Residency in 2023.

Publications

Fu, J.*, Yang, Z.*, Melemenidis, S., ..., Loo, B., and Gu, X. (2024). Exploring Deep learning for estimating the isoeffective dose of FLASH Irradiation from mouse intestinal histological images. International Journal of Radiation Oncology* Biology* Physics. 119(3), 1001-1010. * Co-first authors, contributed equally.

Kazemimoghadam, M., Yang, Z., Chen, M., Lu, W., and Gu, X. (2023). Leveraging global binary masks for structure segmentation in medical images. Physics in Medicine & Biology, 68(18), p.185023.

Kazemimoghadam, M., Yang, Z., Chen, M., Rahimi, A., Kim, N., Alluri, P., Nwachukwu, C., Lu, W., and Gu, X. (2023). A deep learning approach for automatic delineation of clinical target volume in stereotactic partial breast irradiation (S-PBI). Physics in Medicine & Biology, 68(10), 105011.

Yang, Z., Chen, M., Kazemimoghadam, M., Ma, L., Wardak, Z., Stojadinovic, S., Timmerman, R., T. Dan, Lu, W., and Gu, X. (2022). Ensemble learning for glioma patients overall survival prediction using pre-operative MRIs. Physics in Medicine & Biology, 67(24), 245002. 

Yang, Z., Chen, M., Kazemimoghadam, M., Ma, L., Stojadinovic, S., Timmerman, R., T. Dan, Wardak, Z., Lu, W., and Gu, X. (2021). Deep-learning and radiomics ensemble classifier for false positive reduction in brain metastases segmentation. Physics in Medicine & Biology, 67(2), 025004. 

Chen, M., Yang, Z., Wardak, Z., Stojadinovic, S., Gu, X., and Lu, W. (2021). Dose kernel decomposition for spot‐based radiotherapy treatment planning. Medical Physics, 49(2), 1196-1208. 

Yang, Z., Liu, H., Liu, Y., Stojadinovic, S., Timmerman, R., Nedzi, L., T. Dan, Wardak, Z., Lu, W., and Gu, X. (2020). A web‐based brain metastases segmentation and labeling platform for stereotactic radiosurgery. Medical Physics, 47(8), 3263-3276. 

Yang, Z., Ren, L., Yin, F. F., Liang, X., and Cai, J. (2020). Motion robust 4D-MRI sorting based on anatomic feature matching: A digital phantom simulation study. Radiation Medicine and Protection, 1(01), 41-47. 

Yu, S., Chen, M., Zhang, E., Wu, J., Yu, H., Yang, Z., Ma, L., Gu, X., and Lu, W. (2020). Robustness study of noisy annotation in deep learning based medical image segmentation. Physics in Medicine & Biology, 65(17), 175007. 

Pham, J., Harris, W., Sun, W., Yang, Z., Yin, F. F., and Ren, L. (2019). Predicting real-time 3D deformation field maps (DFM) based on volumetric cine MRI (VC-MRI) and artificial neural networks for on-board 4D target tracking: a feasibility study. Physics in Medicine & Biology, 64(16), 165016. 

Zheng, Y., Gao, L., Wang, G., Wang, Y., Yang, Z., Wang, X., Li, T., Dang, C., Zhu, R., and Wang, J. (2016). The influence of unilateral contraction of hand muscles on the contralateral corticomuscular coherence during bimanual motor tasks. Neuropsychologia, 85, 199-207.

Awards and Honors

  • ASTRO Basic/Translational Science Award, American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO), 2024
  • Associate of Science Council Associates Mentorship Program, American Association of Physicists in Medicine (AAPM), 2024
  • AAPM Expanding Horizons Travel Grant, American Association of Physicists in Medicine (AAPM), 2024
  • 1st Place of Young Investigator Symposium, Northern California Chapter of AAPM (NCAAPM), 2024
  • AAPM Research Seed Funding Grant Award, American Association of Physicists in Medicine (AAPM), 2023
  • AAPM Best Award Travel Fellowship, AAPM 65th Annual Meeting, 2023
  • Best in Physics, AAPM 65th Annual Meeting, 2023
  • Young Investigator Best Poster Awards, Southwest Chapter of AAPM (SWAAPM), 2022 and 2021                                                                                                         
  • Best in Physics, AAPM 61st Annual Meeting, 2019