photographist

“The main focus of my thesis was on modeling medical images. Given a population of images, the goal was to estimate shapes that where shared by all the individuals together with geometrical deviations which characterized the population. The brain of a healthy person is very different from the brain of his neighbour however having similarities. This is what we try to highlight with new statistical methods. Now, we try to add new constraints on the model, in particular taking into account multimodal data (different MRI scans giving different information as to grey/white matter, neuron fibres, functional activity, etc..) These models will enable us to build an atlas of the brain for different populations (healthy controls, Alzheimer’s disease patients, etc..). Comparing these atlases, we hope to be able to improve the comprehension of the disease and assist in early diagnosis.

Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore is a famous in particular for its application to medical studies. I spent a year as a post doctoral fellow. After this, I was recruited at Ecole Polytechnique as assistant Professor in applied mathematics. The applied mathematics department has a large spectrum of specialists (numerical analysts, statisticians, probability researchers who works on applications to ecology, financial mathematics, etc). It would be interesting to reorganize the mathematic that are taught in high school to show that maths and physics are not just abstract tools but are used to solve crucial social problems. According to me it would increase the interest students have for mathematics! For me, the medical application came naturally.”

Stéphanie Allassonnière
Professor, École Polytechnique

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