Martina F. Callaghan

Martina F. Callaghan is an Irish medical physicist who is the Director of the Wellcome Centre for Human Neuroimaging at the UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology. Her research considers the development of in-vivo histology using MRI.

Early life and education Callaghan studied physics at the University of Limerick. She moved to Imperial College London for her graduate research, where she joined Joseph Hajnal and David Larkman at Hammersmith Hospital and earned her Ph.D. She worked as a postdoctoral researcher at Imperial College London and Middlesex University, focusing on parallel transmit technology, lipid quantification in clinical populations and the use of nanotechnology in oncology. Her research considers advanced, microstructure brain imaging as a means to understand the structure and function of brains. She makes use of quantitative imaging to understand tissue microstructure through measurements of iron levels and myelination. In particular, 7T MRI offers hope to interrogate the neural circuitry that is involved with human cognition. She is interested in inter-individual ageing and in-vivo histology using MRI.

In 2022, Callaghan was appointed Director of the Wellcome Centre for Human Neuroimaging.

Selected publications