Meet the PhD-student — Konstantinos Olympios
To start off, could you introduce yourself and tell us a bit about your academic background?
I’m Konstantinos Olympios, a PhD candidate at UMC Utrecht. I hold an MSc in Medical Physics and a BSc in Physics.
Can you tell us about the project you'll be working on and what interests you most about it?
Within CHIME, my project aims to push Deuterium Metabolic Spectroscopic Imaging forward—developing acquisition and reconstruction strategies to produce higher-SNR, quantitative maps of brain metabolism. I’m especially excited about translating advanced reconstruction theory and pulse programming into robust, open, and reproducible tools that clinicians and researchers can actually use. The blend of physics, signal processing, and real clinical questions is exactly where I like to work.
What societal/medical issue does your research address?
Many neurological and oncological conditions are driven by altered metabolism long before gross anatomical changes are visible. DMI offers a way to trace labelled substrates and map metabolic pathways in vivo. However it suffers from long acquisition times and low SNR data. That is where my research comes in. Attempting to create new ways that bypass these current problems of DMSI.
What do you hope to achieve during your PhD, both personally and professionally?
Professionally, I want to deliver validated methods and open-source software for quantitative DMI, complete with documentation and example datasets, so others can reproduce and build on our work. I also aim to learn about pulse programming and be able to create new pulse sequences at some point of my professional career.
Personally, I hope to grow as a collaborative scientist and mentor, strengthen my theoretical foundation in pulse programming, reconstruction and MR physics, and develop the habits and communication skills that make complex research impactful beyond the lab.
Have you had a chance to meet your colleagues yet? How has the welcome been so far?
Yes, both the UMC Utrecht imaging team and the wider CHIME network have been incredibly welcoming. The environment is collaborative and friendly: people are
generous with code, data, and feedback, and there’s a real drive to make methods clinically meaningful. It’s an inspiring place to learn, contribute, and move fast together.
