Program

Faculty

Dr. Perry J. Pickhardt graduated from the University of Wisconsin–Madison with a B.S. in Physics in 1991 and from the University of Michigan Medical School in 1995. From 1995 to 1999, he was a resident in diagnostic radiology at the Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology at Washington University in St. Louis. After residency training, Dr. Pickhardt served in the U.S. Navy, spending one year as the Department Head of Radiology at the U.S. Naval Hospital Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and three years as the head of GI‑GU Imaging at the National Naval Medical Center (NNMC) in Bethesda, MD. Dr. Pickhardt joined the Abdominal Imaging & Intervention Section at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health in 2003, and was promoted to full professor in 2009. He continues to serve as the Chief of Gastrointestinal Imaging and was previously the Medical Director of Cancer Imaging. His work in abdominal imaging has resulted in over 500 scientific publications in the peer‑reviewed literature, with an h‑index of 100 and an i10‑index of more than 400. He has served as PI on multiple NIH RO1 grants, has authored over 100 book chapters and textbooks, and has delivered over 500 invited talks. He has received seven best paper awards at the Annual Meeting for the SAR and was named ‘Most Influential Radiology Researcher’ by auntminnie.com in 2016 and 2023. He received the SAR Gold Medal in 2024.

Prof. Maxime Ronot is head of the Department of Medical Imaging at Beaujon University Hospital in Clichy and is affiliated with the Université Paris Cité in Paris, France. Specializing in abdominal imaging, he focuses on liver and pancreas diseases and tumors, interventional abdominal oncology, and abdominal vascular diseases. He holds memberships in various prominent French and European radiology societies, including the French and European Societies of Radiology and the European Society of Gastrointestinal and Abdominal Radiology (ESGAR). He is a member of the LI‑RADS steering committee. In this capacity, he chairs the LI‑RADS benign liver lesions group and contributes to the LI‑RADS AI and cholangiocarcinoma groups and the CIRSE AI task force. Prof. Ronot has authored or coauthored over 400 articles and books. Furthermore, he serves as the president of the French national ethics committee for medical imaging research.

Dr. Katja De Paepe is an abdominal radiologist at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, USA, and assistant professor at Harvard Medical School. Her clinical practice and research focus on cancer and hepatobiliary imaging, particularly liver cancer and whole‑body MRI in oncology. She completed her PhD at KU Leuven on whole‑body MRI for the diagnosis and treatment response in lymphoma, followed by positions at the Royal Marsden Hospital in London and Cambridge University Hospitals in Cambridge, UK. At BIDMC, she also serves as Director of Ultrasound and Associate Program Director for Resident Research and Scholarship.

Dr. Koenraad J. Mortelé graduated from Ghent University Medical School, Belgium, in 1993. From 1993 until 1998, he was a resident in diagnostic radiology at the University Hospital in Ghent (UZ Ghent). During his residency, in 1997, he spent three months as a research fellow in abdominal imaging at Shands Hospital, University of Florida, Gainesville, USA.

After residency training, Dr. Mortele joined the Abdominal and Thoracic Imaging Section at UZ Ghent for two years, until he left for Boston, USA, in 2000 to complete a two‑year fellowship in Radiology Management at Partners Healthcare. Thereafter, Dr. Mortele joined the Abdominal Imaging Section at Brigham & Women’s Hospital (BWH), Boston. During his tenure at BWH until 2011, he was promoted to Associate Professor of Radiology at Harvard Medical School (HMS), was Director of Abdominal MRI, and Associate Director of Abdominal Imaging. In 2011, Dr. Mortele accepted the position of Clinical Director of MRI at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC), HMS, Boston, and became the Section Chief of Abdominal Imaging at BIDMC in 2015. In 2024, Dr. Mortele returned to his home country and rejoined the Abdominal and Thoracic Imaging Section at UZ Ghent.

Although he has maintained a broad interest in all aspects of abdominal imaging, his clinical expertise and research have over the years increasingly focused on the imaging of pancreatic disorders and hepatobiliary diseases, for which he has achieved international recognition. For example, he served as the sole lecturer on pancreatic diseases at the world‑renowned American Institute of Radiologic Pathology (AIRP), Washington DC, from 2014 to 2020.

His passion for abdominal imaging has also resulted in over 250 scientific publications in the peer‑reviewed literature. Moreover, he has co‑authored 3 textbooks and 25 book chapters and has delivered over 200 invited lectures. His teaching and mentorship have been recognized by several awards, locally notably by the ‘Annual Award for Radiology Resident Teaching’ in 2002 and 2005 at BWH, the 2008–2009 Harvard Medical School ‘Young Mentor Award,’ the ‘Section of the Year Award’ in 2011 at BIDMC, and the 2013 ‘Ferris Hall Faculty Award for Excellence in Teaching’ at BIDMC. Some of the national and international awards he received include the Winner of General Film Reading Session award at the European Congress of Radiology, Vienna, Austria, in 1997; the Roscoe E. Miller Award for Best Scientific Paper (principal investigator) at the Society of Gastrointestinal Radiology, Orlando, FL, in 2002; the 24th Traveling Visiting Professor award of the Society of Gastrointestinal Radiology in 2009; and the First Place Award, Unknown Cases Competition, at the Society of Abdominal Radiology (SAR) Annual Meeting in 2015 and 2018.

Dr. Isabelle De Kock is an abdominal radiologist at Ghent University Hospital, Belgium, where she has been working since 2015. She specializes in gastrointestinal imaging, with a particular focus on inflammatory bowel disease, and has authored several Q1 publications, including contributions to international guidelines and multicenter studies. She coordinates the imaging workshops of the European Crohn’s and Colitis Organisation (ECCO) and has been the scientific lead of the European Society of Gastrointestinal and Abdominal Radiology (ESGAR) small bowel imaging workshop since 2022. Dr. De Kock is a fellow of ESGAR, serves on its Executive Committee, and was recognized as a 2025 ESGAR Rising Star.

Elleke Dresen has been working as an abdominal and oncological radiologist at the University Hospitals Leuven since 2014, mainly focusing on pelvic MRI and whole‑body diffusion‑weighted MRI, aiming for optimization of treatment planning and assessment of treatment response. Her dissertation addressed the multidisciplinary approach to locally advanced and recurrent rectal cancer, with Regina Beets‑Tan as promotor. She practices all aspects of abdominal radiology, including MRI, CT, PET/CT, ultrasound, fluoroscopy, and nonvascular abdominal interventions. She is an active member of the oncological multidisciplinary team meetings, especially concerning gastrointestinal, colorectal, and gynecological cancer patients. Since October 2017, she has been partly employed as an assistant professor at KU Leuven. She is involved in the education of students, interns, and residents. Her current research focuses on oncological imaging, with a special emphasis on rectal cancer imaging and whole‑body diffusion‑weighted magnetic resonance imaging in patients with gastrointestinal, colorectal, and gynecological cancer with the aim of optimization of treatment planning and assessment of treatment response. She received a KOTK grant for the AIM project: ‘Development of an AI‑driven quantitative algorithm for whole‑body diffusion‑weighted MRI to improve staging and prognostication of invasive lobular breast cancer.’ She is co‑leader of the Imaging Working Group of the European Lobular Breast Cancer Consortium (ELBCC) and promoter and co‑promoter of several research projects in oncological imaging. Furthermore, she is an invited speaker at many international multidisciplinary congresses and a faculty member of the annual ESGAR workshop ‘MR imaging of rectal cancer’ and the annual Peritoneal Metastases workshop.

Dr. Elke Vereecke is a radiologist at the University Hospital of Ghent, with a subspecialization in emergency radiology. She developed a particular interest in trauma radiology during her training at Ghent University and is part of the multidisciplinary trauma team in the hospital, which is a level 1 trauma center. She obtained her PhD in 2024.

Dr. Alba Igual Rouilleault is a radiologist specialized in abdominal imaging, currently working at Cliniques Universitaires Saint‑Luc (UCLouvain). She completed her residency at Clínica Universidad de Navarra and pursued international fellowships at Hôpital Beaujon in Paris and Hôpital Érasme in Brussels (ESOR Clinical Bracco Fellowship), where she deepened her expertise in hepatobiliary and abdominal imaging. In 2024, she obtained her PhD on the ultrasound evaluation of axillary lymphadenopathy after COVID‑19 vaccination, with cum laude distinction. In her clinical practice, she is passionate about integrating clinical work, research, and teaching. She is strongly motivated to contribute to multidisciplinary collaboration, innovation, and the continuous improvement of patient care, with her current projects focusing on oncology imaging.

Martina Pezzullo is an abdominal radiologist born and raised in Naples, Italy. She completed both her medical degree and postgraduate training in radiology in her hometown. During her radiology training, she spent a semester in the MR unit at Erasme Hospital in Brussels, under the mentorship of Dr. Celso Matos, to deepen her expertise in abdominal MRI. Once she became a licensed radiologist, she worked at Erasme Hospital as a fellow and then as an attending radiologist. Since 2021, she has been leading the abdominal radiology section of the Erasme Hospital, now part of the Hôpital Universitaire de Bruxelles (HUB). Martina collaborates closely with the departments of gastroenterology and hepatology of HUB, focusing her clinical and research interests on pancreatic and hepatobiliary pathology. She is an ESGAR fellow and member of the abdominal radiology subcommittee for ECR 2026.

Dr. Ana Veron Sanchez earned her medical degree from the Universidad de Cantabria before training as a radiologist at Hospital San Carlos in Madrid. Since completing her residency in 2006, she has cultivated an expertise in Emergency and Abdominal Radiology, working across some of Madrid’s most renowned referral centers, including Hospital La Paz, Gregorio Marañón, La Princesa, and the MD Anderson Cancer Center. With a drive to keep learning and evolving, in 2020, she joined the Institut Jules Bordet in Brussels, where she is dedicated to gastrointestinal imaging, with special interest in MR and peritoneal carcinomatosis.

After completing his medical studies at the Free University of Brussels (VUB, 1988, magna cum laude), Dr. Bart OP de Beeck began his radiology training under the mentorship of Michel Osteaux (VUB) and Roland Potvliege (ULB) and served as a staff member at UZ Brussels, where he worked until 2006. He specialized in digestive imaging and completed a visiting fellowship at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill School of Medicine, in 1998. He was a member of the RBRS from 1996 to 2014, serving as president in 2007 and for many years as president and/or secretary of the abdominal section. Under the mentorship of Eric Ponette (KUL) and Jacques Pringot (UCL), he became a member of ESGAR and has been a fellow for 25 years. He was also a member of the ECR and served as the past chairman of the abdominal and gastrointestinal scientific subcommittee in 2013. For more than 30 years, he was a lecturer in the abdominal module of the Erasmus Course on Magnetic Resonance Imaging (EMRI) and served as course coordinator from 2007 to 2013. He has delivered more than 360 lectures in 25 countries and is the author or co‑author of over 140 scientific publications (h‑index 30).

Since 2001, he has been working at the University Hospital Antwerp (UZA). His expertise primarily on oncological, hepatobiliary, and pancreatic imaging.

Dr. Mathieu Lefere has been working as a general radiologist at Imeldaziekenhuis Bonheiden since 2016, with a special interest in abdominal and urogenital radiology. his department, he coordinates the education of residents, with a focus on encouraging active participation in BSR section meetings. Recently, he participated in the Junior ESGAR 2024 Mentorship Programme. He is currently the Dutch‑speaking representative of the Abdominal Radiology Section.

Prof. Frederik Vandenbroucke is a radiologist at UZ Brussels, where he is responsible for body imaging with a particular expertise in liver pathology. He is an active member of several national and international professional societies and serves as organizer of the Belgian Erasmus Courses on Abdominal Imaging. Through these activities, he combines clinical expertise with a strong commitment to academic education and the advancement of radiological practice.

Dr. Vincent Vandecaveye is a staff radiologist at the division of abdominal/gynecological imaging, Department of Radiology at the University Hospitals Leuven, Leuven, Belgium, since 2008 and an associate professor at the Catholic University of Leuven. He completed his PhD in 2010 on diffusion‑weighted MRI in head and neck cancer. Next to general abdominal imaging and abdominal radiological intervention, his main clinical interests include imaging of hepatic tumors, gynecological imaging with special focus on ovarian cancer, and functional MRI of abdominal cancers. Likewise, his main area of research includes the development of (whole body) diffusion‑weighted imaging for tumor detection, staging, and (early) treatment assessment of gynecological, hepatobiliary/digestive cancers, breast cancer, and hematological and neuro‑endocrine tumors. Vincent Vandecaveye has (co‑)authored 142 peer‑reviewed articles, mainly on diffusion‑weighted MRI in oncology, and delivered more than 150 invited lectures at international meetings concerning oncologic and diffusion‑weighted imaging (including ESGAR, ECR, Erasmus courses, ESTRO, IOTA, ACAR). He is a member of the EORTC imaging group, the European Society of Radiology (ESR), a fellow of the European Society of Gastrointestinal and Abdominal Radiology (ESGAR), the ESGAR research committee, and a member of European and Belgian guideline development groups for the diagnosis and treatment of colon cancer, ovarian cancer, and hepatobiliary cancer. He was also a member of the organizing scientific committee for the annual meeting of the ESMRMB 2015 and has been a scientific subcommittee member for the European Congress of Radiology since 2015. He is also a member of the Oncology section of the Scientific Editorial Board of European Radiology and was the associate editor for Abdominal Imaging.

Competing Interests

The authors have no competing interests to declare.