Seongwook Choi, Ph.D.

Biography

Seongwook Choi is an Assistant Professor in the School of Health and Environmental Science at Korea University and the Principal Investigator of the Multimodal Acoustic Systems Laboratory (MAS Lab). His research develops acoustic imaging technologies that connect photoacoustic imaging, ultrasound imaging, radiation-induced acoustics, quantitative reconstruction, and artificial intelligence. He is particularly interested in building complete imaging pipelines - from hardware and signal acquisition to image reconstruction, quantitative analysis, and biomedical validation. His broader goal is to engineer imaging and acoustic-stimulation protocols that provide repeatable measures of disease progression, physiological dynamics, and biological responses to treatment, neuromodulation, and rehabilitation.

Before joining Korea University, he was a Postdoctoral Scholar in the Department of Radiology, School of Medicine at Stanford University, where he worked with Prof. Katherine W. Ferrara on ultrasound/photoacoustic imaging and deep-learning-based biomedical image analysis. He previously conducted postdoctoral research at the Institute of Artificial Intelligence at POSTECH and served as a visiting researcher in the Department of Nuclear Medicine at Seoul National University.

He received his Ph.D. in Convergence IT Engineering from POSTECH under the supervision of Prof. Chulhong Kim. His doctoral dissertation, Photon-induced Acoustic Imaging: from Hardware Implementation to Deep Learning Application, integrated imaging-system development, 3D photoacoustic computed tomography, X-ray-induced acoustic imaging, GPU-based reconstruction, and deep-learning-enhanced volumetric imaging. His undergraduate training was in Mechanical Engineering at POSTECH, providing the engineering foundation for his current interdisciplinary work across imaging physics, instrumentation, computation, and medicine.

최성욱 교수는 고려대학교 보건환경융합과학부에서 MAS Lab을 이끌고 있습니다. 기계공학을 기반으로 광음향·초음파·방사선 유도 음향영상 시스템을 개발해 왔으며, 영상 하드웨어부터 신호·영상처리, GPU 계산, 딥러닝, 전임상·임상 응용까지 연결하는 연구를 수행합니다. 새로운 영상을 만드는 것뿐 아니라, 개발한 기술을 이용해 질병의 진행과 생리적 변화, 치료·초음파 자극·재활에 대한 생체 반응을 반복적으로 측정하고 정량 바이오마커와 모니터링 지표로 발전시키는 것을 목표로 합니다.

Research Interests

• Multimodal acoustic and biomedical imaging
• Photoacoustic computed tomography and ultrasound imaging
• Radiation-induced acoustic imaging, X-ray acoustics, and dosimetry
• AI-enhanced reconstruction, segmentation, generation, and quantitative imaging
• 3D imaging systems, signal processing, inverse problems, and GPU-accelerated computation
• Preclinical and translational applications for disease and treatment monitoring, ultrasound stimulation, neuromodulation, and rehabilitation assessment

Professional Experience

Education

Teaching

Selected Honors & Fellowships

• Editor’s Pick, Biomedical Optics Express (2025)
• Top Viewed Article, Laser & Photonics Reviews (2025)
• IEEE Transactions on Medical Imaging Distinguished Reviewer, Bronze Level (2024)
• NRF Postdoctoral Overseas Training Fellowship (2024-2025)
• Top Downloaded Article, Advanced Science (2023)
• Excellence Award in Convergence IT Engineering, POSTECH (2022)
• Young Investigator Award, Advanced Biophotonics Conference (2022)
• Multiple Best Poster Awards, KOSOMBE and POSTECH conferences (2019-2022)
• Global Ph.D. Fellowship, National Research Foundation of Korea (2019-2023)
• National Excellent Student Scholarship (Science and Engineering), NRF

Academic Service

• Early Career Editor, Biophotonics Discovery (SPIE)
• Reviewer for journals including Nature Communications, IEEE Transactions on Medical Imaging, Photoacoustics, Biomedical Optics Express, Journal of Biomedical Optics, and etc.