Muyinatu Bell

Bell grew up in Brooklyn, New York. She decided she was going to be a scientist at the age of six.[1] In high school, she was selected to take part in a math and science program for successful women sophomores.[2] She studied at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, graduating with a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering in 2006. She was involved in several societies, including the Biomedical Engineering Society,[3] the Black Women's Alliance, the Black Student Union, and the Women's Technology Program.[2] She joined Duke University for her postgraduate studies. She finished her PhD in 2012, and also received a Whitaker Foundation International Fellowship to lead a research project at the Institute of Cancer Research and Royal Marsden Hospital during 2009-2010.[4] Her graduate dissertation research was supported by a UNCF/Merck Graduate Dissertation Fellowship. Bell became a postdoctoral fellow at Johns Hopkins University, working in the centre for Computer-Integrated Surgical Systems and Technology. Her postdoctoral appointment was supported by both UNCF/Merck and the Ford Foundation.[5][6] In 2012, she was selected to take part in the University of Michigan NextProf workshop.[7]

Bell joined the faculty of Johns Hopkins University as an interim assistant research professor.[1] She works with the Laboratory for Computational Sensing and Robotics to develop systems that can control individual ultrasound and photoacoustic components.[1] She is exploring various medical robots for treating and diagnosing medical conditions.[5] She launched an online course, Introduction to Medical Imaging, on Udemy in 2015.[8] That year she was awarded a National Institutes of Health K99/R00 Pathway to Independence Award.[9] This allowed her to evaluate coherence-based photoacoustic image guidance for transsphenoidal surgery.[10] She holds a patent in short-lag spatial coherence beamforming.[11][12] The technique can be used for photoacoustic image guidance of medical procedures, such as skull base surgery[12] or prostate brachytherapy.[13] She provided a free MATLAB toolbox UltraSound Toolbox to help process ultrasonic signals.[14] In 2016, she founded PULSE, the Photoacoustic and Ultrasonic Systems Engineering Laboratory.[1][15] She was included in the MIT Technology Review 2016 list of 35 Innovators Under 35.[16][17]

Bell joined the faculty of biomedical engineering at Johns Hopkins University in January 2017.[5] She was awarded a National Institutes of Health Trailblazer Award in 2018.[18] The award uses machine learning to improve the quality of ultrasound images.[19][20][21] She will explore convolutional neural networks that input data and output readable images that are free from artefacts.[22] She took part in the 2017 Deep Learning in Healthcare Summit in Boston.[23] She was awarded a 2018 Johns Hopkins University Discovery Award, which allowed her to explore the use of photoacoustic image guidance in gynaecological surgeries.[24] She was awarded an NSF CAREER Award in 2018 to allow her to advance photoacoustic-guided surgery.[25] This will help surgeons avoid damaging vital structures during operations.[2] She was invited by the National Academy of Engineering to participate in the U.S. Frontiers of Engineering Symposium in 2018.[26] She was awarded a Sloan Research Fellowship[27] and she was named Maryland’s Outstanding Young Engineer[28][29] by the Maryland Academy of Sciences and the Maryland Science Center in 2019.

Bell is a senior member of both the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)[30] and SPIE.[31] She regularly attends IEEE and SPIE conferences,[31][32] she is active in the IEEE Women in Engineering community,[33][34] and she supports SPIE women in optics activities.[35][36]

Bell's awards and honors include:

• 2019 Sloan Research Fellowship[27][37]
• 2019 Maryland’s Outstanding Young Engineer Award[28]
• 2019 Alan C. Davis Medal from the Maryland Academy of Sciences[29]
• 2018 NSF CAREER Award[25]
• 2018 National Institutes of Health Trailblazer Award[38]
• 2018 National Academy of Engineering, U.S. Frontiers of Engineering Symposium, Invited Participant[26]
• 2018 Hopkins Discovery Award[39]
• 2016 MIT Technology Review 35 Innovators Under 35[16][17]
• 2015 National Institutes of Health K99/R00 Pathway to Independence Award[40]
• 2015 UNCF/Merck Postdoctoral Fellowship[41]
• 2015 Ford Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship[42]
• 2011 UNCF/Merck Graduate Science Research Dissertation Fellowship[43]
• 2009 Whitaker International Fellowship[4]