Greig Scott, Senior Research Engineer
What I Do
I help to manage the Magnetic Resonance Systems Research Lab.
Origins
Born in Glasgow Scotland, my family immigrated to Canada when I was age 3 (yes, I'm a Canadian citizen). I grew up in London, Ontario. Currently I reside in Mountain View. I started playing with transistor electronic kits in grade 6, and had subscriptions to Popular Electronics, and took electronics courses in high school.
My undergrad was in Electrical Engineering at University of Waterloo, which included 2 years of work experience in the co-op program at Bell-Northern Research (Nortel Networks R&D arm), and Mitel Corporation (both telecom industry) in Ottawa Ontario. My master's and PhD are from the University of Toronto in Electrical Engineering (Institute of Biomedical Engineering). This is where I did work on electromagnetic field visualization and dielectric contrast imaging by MRI. I won the Young Investigator Award for this work at the Berlin 1992 Society of Magnetic Resonance in Medicine Conference.
I came out to Stanford initially to do a 2-year post-doc and help establish the prepolarized MRI lab with Al Macovski and Steve Conolly. At Stanford, my personal mission is to identify underused electromagnetic phenomena and electronics capabilities that could advance the field of MRI. I was heavily influenced by Tracy Kidder's "The Soul of a New Machine" in which a small skunk-works team can do big things. Consequently, I have never stopped re-imagining the MRI scanner, and in 2022 was named a Fellow of the International Society of Magnetic Resonance in Medicine. These days, I work with John Pauly, and recently obtained NIH funding for Wireless MRI Receivers, to overcome a decades-long limitation of MRI technology.
My EExperience
The EE environment at Stanford is second to none. What allowed me to carve out my own research path in MRI (typically dominated by Radiology) was access to expertise in all aspects of RF and circuit engineering, (courses and professors) in EE. Few places in the world give this opportunity along with MRI. Conversely, EE has given me the chance to engage with many students, for example through the REU program, over the years, and this has always been fun. It is an immense source of pride to see students that I mentored, take on their own career paths.
Outside of Work
I am lucky that my first hobby (electronics) became my career. Away from the lab, I have been a long time student of Japanese, though my speech level is best described as terminal intermediate. For recreation, I have played on a beer-league hockey team for 25+ years at Sharks Ice in San Jose. Currently, I play as a defenseman on the Red Hawks (jersey #62). I also run for exercise and am the defending two-time winner of my age division in the Palo Alto Moonlight Run 5km.
Favorite Spot
My favorite spot on campus would have to be the dish. On a clear day, the view is glorious. Off campus, Shoreline Park is a favorite.
Greig C. Scott, Ph.D.
Stanford University
Stanford, CA, USA
For significant contributions in MRI engineering and fundamental physics including prepolarized MRI, and parallel transmit and receive technologies. via: www.ismrm.org
Photo credit to Linda A. Cicero / Stanford News Service. Images retrieved from SALLIE, Stanford's image database.
Photo credit to Linda A. Cicero / Stanford News Service. Images retrieved from SALLIE, Stanford's image database.