Dr. Bill Thomlinson is a world, renowned expert in synchrotron medical imaging and as of November 2002, the new Executive Director of the Canadian Light Source (CSL).
He is the former Head of the Medical Research Group at the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF) in Grenoble, France.
He recently received a tenured position in the University of Saskatchewan Department of Physics.
He has led a highly successful medical imaging beamline group at the ESRF for the past three years.
He helped start lung and mammography imaging, and in 2000, led the first human angiography (blood vessel imaging) studies at the ESRF.
Prior to joining the ESRF, he was from 1979 through 1998 a member of the scientific staff and management group at the National Synchrotron Light Source, Brookhaven National Laboratory, in Upton, New York, ultimately serving as Associate Chair for Environment, Safety and Health.
At Brookhaven, he also created and led the successful Synchrotron Medical Research Facility, a multi-discipline facility devoted to medical research.
In 1996, Thomlinson and three other scientists invented and patented a diffraction-enhanced imaging technique for applications to mammography and other medical imaging problems.
There are now similar programs at Brookhaven and major European synchrotrons.
In 1981, he joined the Stanford University / Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory (SSRL) angiography project as a collaborator.
In 1986, he participated in the first human coronary angiography experiments at SSRL.
Prior to 1979, Thomlinson was a research scientist in low temperature and solid-state physics at Brookhaven National Laboratory, a Department of Energy (DOE) laboratory on Long Island, New York.
During the early 70s, he worked as a research associate at Cornell University and later as a physicist in Germany.
He received his doctorate from Yale University in 1970.
He has published more than 120 papers and has made many contributions to the worldwide synchrotron community.
