Peter Joel Basser PhD

Peter Basser received his A.B., S.M., and Ph.D. degrees in Engineering Sciences from Harvard University, and received his post-doctoral research training within the NIH Intramural Research Program in what is now the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB). He later became a Senior Investigator at the NIH, and was appointed Head, Section on Tissue Biophysics and Biomimetics (’97), and Director.

His Program on Pediatric Imaging and Tissue Sciences (’10) within the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD). In 2015, Dr. Basser became Associate Scientific Director (ASD) of the Division of Imaging, Behavior and Genomic Integrity (DIBGI) within NICHD. Dr. Basser played a principal role in inventing several widely used MRI technologies, including diffusion tensor MRI (DTI) (’91), DTI “streamline tractography” (’91, ’94, ’98), and AxCaliber (’03)—an in vivo MRI method to measure the axon diameter distribution within white matter fascicles and peripheral nerves.