Profile photo Alexander Leemans

Alexander Leemans

Associate Professor

Strategic program(s):

Biography

Alexander Leemans is a physicist who received his Ph.D. in 2006 at the University of Antwerp, Belgium. From 2007 to 2009, he worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the Cardiff University Brain Research Imaging Center (CUBRIC), Cardiff University, Wales, United Kingdom. In 2009, he joined the Image Sciences Institute (ISI), University Medical Center Utrecht, the Netherlands, where he currently holds a tenured faculty position as Associate Professor. His current research interests include modeling, processing, visualizing and analyzing diffusion MRI data for investigating microstructural and architectural tissue organization. He heads the PROVIDI Lab and is the developer of ExploreDTI, which is a graphical toolbox for investigating diffusion MRI data.

Research line

Diffusion MRI

Most recent key publications

1: C. Lebel, L. Walker, A. Leemans, L. Phillips, C. Beaulieu, "Microstructural Maturation of the Human Brain from Childhood to Adulthood", NeuroImage, 2008, nr. 3, vol. 40, pp. 1044-1055
2: A. Leemans, D.K. Jones, "The B-matrix must be rotated when correcting for subject motion in DTI data", Magnetic Resonance in Medicine, 2009, nr. 1, vol. 62, pp. 1336-1349
3: J.D. Tournier, S. Mori, A. Leemans, "Diffusion tensor imaging and beyond", Magnetic Resonance in Medicine, 2011, nr. 6, vol. 65, pp. 1532-1556
4: B. Jeurissen, A. Leemans, J.D. Tournier, D.K. Jones, J. Sijbers, "Investigating the prevalence of complex fiber configurations in white matter tissue with diffusion MRI", Human Brain Mapping, 2013, nr. 11, vol. 34, pp. 2747-2766
5: S.B. Vos, D.K. Jones, M.A. Viergever, A. Leemans, "Partial volume effect as a hidden covariate in DTI analyses", NeuroImage, 2011, nr. 4, vol. 55, pp. 1566-1576

Research groups

Image sciences institute

Research aim

Our aim is to develop and evaluate medical image analysis and acquisition methods that help to answer research questions relevant to the strategic research programs, and that will benefit clinical imaging and image-guided interventions.

Go to group

Translational neuroimaging group

Research aim

To develop and apply advanced MRI methods for (pre)clinical research on neuronal and cerebrovascular biology in order to: 1) unravel critical aspects of brain impairment and recovery 2) advance brain treatments (focus: cerebrovascular diseases).

Go to group

Recent publications

Diffusion tractography outside the brain Kurt G. Schilling, Irvin Teh, Julien Cohen-Adad, Richard Dortch, Ibrahim Ibrahim, Nian Wang, Bruce Damon, Rory L. Cochran, Alexander Leemans
Brain Structure and Function, 2026, vol. 231
Individualized functionnectome for the statistical assessment of white matter circuits underlying task-fMRI activations in glioma patients Giovanni Sighinolfi, Alexander Leemans, David Neil Manners, Elena Cantoni, Gianfranco Vornetti, Lorenzo Motta, Enrico Franceschi, Caterina Tonon, Raffaele Lodi, Alberto De Luca
NeuroImage. Clinical, 2025, vol. 49
Structural brain changes in subacute spinal cord injury Ernst Christiaanse, Jothini Sritharan, Patrik O Wyss, Anke Scheel-Sailer, Alexander Leemans, Rajeev K Verma, Alberto De Luca, Giuseppe A Zito
Frontiers in Neuroscience, 2025, vol. 19
Millennium Pathways for Tractography Maxime Descoteaux, Kurt G Schilling, Dogu Baran Aydogan, Christian Beaulieu, Elena Borra, Maxime Chamberland, Alessandro Daducci, Alberto De Luca, Flavio Dell'Acqua, Jessica Dubois, Tim B Dyrby, Shawna Farquharson, Stephanie Forkel, Martijn Froeling, Alessandra Griffa, Mareike Grotheer, Pamela Guevara, Suzanne N Haber, Vinod Kumar Jangir, Alexander Leemans, Joël Lefebvre, Ching-Po Lin, Graham Little, Chun-Yi Zac Lo, Chiara Maffei, Helen S Mayberg, Jennifer A McNab, Pratik Mukherjee, Lauren J O'Donnell, Martin Parent, Carlo Pierpaoli, Francois Rheault, Kathleen S Rockland, Alard Roebroeck, Ariel Rokem, R Jarrett Rushmore, Silvio Sarubbo, Simona Schiavi, Stamatios N Sotiropoulos, Diego Szczupak, Michel Thiebaut de Schotten, J-Donald Tournier, Francesco Vergani, Joseph Yuan-Mou Yang, Fan Zhang, Derek Jones, Laurent Petit
2025
Diffusion MRI of the prenatal fetal brain M Di Stefano, T Ciceri, A Leemans, S M C de Zwarte, A De Luca, D Peruzzo
NeuroImage, 2025, vol. 320
Trends in Term-Equivalent Age Brain Volumes in Infants Born Across the Gestational Age Spectrum Anouk S Verschuur, Gerda van Wezel-Meijler, Selma Low, Ingrid M Nijholt, Amy Metcalfe, Janice Skiffington, Donna M Slater, Amy Bergeron, Elsa Fiedrich, Martijn F Boomsma, Chantal M W Tax, Alexander Leemans, Lara M Leijser
Children, 2025, vol. 12

Fellowships & Awards

VIDI (NWO)

FC-EW (NWO)

USERN (UNESCO)

PhD fellowship (IWT)

Honorary Doctorate (Chubut)

Honorary Doctorate (Kharkiv)

Young Investigator Award (BHPA)

Outstanding Teacher Award (ISMRM)