Member Spotlight: Lars Kasper

At school, Latin and math were my favorite languages. Their logic and flexibility to describe the world fascinated me, as well as the inherent unambiguity—there was always a right answer. So, I studied physics in Goettingen, Germany, thinking that my favorite language (math, not Latin…) could describe nature the same way. Imagine my disappointment during the second year when I learnt that not a lot more than the hydrogen atom can be described analytically by quantum mechanics!

Instead, I got interested in nonlinear dynamics, emergent simple behavior from hopelessly complex systems. I attended a summer school (organized by my one of my later Ph.D. supervisors, Klaas Enno Stephan) about the most intriguing nonlinear system of all, the brain, and did a research project with Michael Breakspear in Sydney. We used functional MRI to study brain networks during binocular rivalry, i.e., changes in the perceived image when each eye sees a different input … and again, mathematics was the common language to describe the phenomenon.

I was sold on studying the brain through math. What bothered me, though, was that, as an aspiring physicist, I had no clue how these fMRI time series were really measured. So I guess I returned to hydrogen after all, and did my master’s thesis with Jens Frahm and Susann Boretius in Goettingen, learning the foundations of MRI, sequence programming, and all.

I realized that coding and math—in particular, image reconstruction—were my passion, so when I started my Ph.D. in Zurich, Switzerland, I was excited to learn that Klaas Enno had convinced Klaas Pruessmann to be my co-supervisor. It would be a running gag throughout my Ph.D. that I was educated in a two-Klaas system. In fact, they both are first-class mentors and profoundly impacted my ideal of sustainable science, both in the way that they put the people and collaboration between their students at the center of their lab philosophy as well as in the conviction that it’s worthwhile to dive deep and arrive at the true nature of a scientific problem rather than stopping early at partial solutions. So, 20 years on from my school days, I might not be seeking the right answer any more, but I am still fascinated by the right question.

I have been doing research involving human neuro MRI ever since, mostly at ultra-high field (7T) and with a focus on functional MRI. I wanted to understand the “noise” that buries our brain signals, which led me to work on physiological noise modeling and magnetic field monitoring. But I also wanted to measure the little signal we have very efficiently, so I became a big fan of spiral trajectories (it might be in my name: Lars + pi = spiral).

What I love most about MR is the versatility of the method leading to an interdisciplinary community. I have worked with M.D.’s specializing from radiology to psychiatry, as well as psychologists, mathematicians, computer scientists, biologists, engineers, and even economists and philosophers in my work. I learn something new every day and truly celebrate moments of epiphany when we can generalize seemingly basic ideas or bridge them between fields. But all that would be moot without the direct impact on peoples’ lives. What I do ultimately can improve human health and advance our understanding of the brain, and that gives me purpose. I couldn’t work as an investment banker or optimizing click rates on websites, even though the math there is also cool.

On a typical day, my wife and I wake up at 1 a.m. … and 3 a.m. … and 5 a.m. … until we finally give in to our youngest (7 months) son’s request to start the day before 7 am and pay our nice Swiss coffee machine a visit. We get the older son ready for school and either drive (Canadian winter, my wife) or cycle (summer, me) to drop him off. At the moment, I am on parental leave, so I enjoy spending time with our baby son—and appreciate the hard work that goes into that.

Otherwise, I would start working around 9am. Here in Toronto, at the BRAIN-TO lab, we aim to bring more of our technical developments into clinical practice, and I focus on spiral diffusion MRI. A lot of this can be done on a computer, allowing me to work from home most of the time. That is one of the few bright sides that was normalized by the pandemic and thanks to my very accommodating P.I., Kâmil Uludağ.

I am a Scientific Associate (staff scientist) at a university hospital, a crucial role for any lab in terms of sustainability of science, because we retain and extend knowledge about instruments, methods, and research topics over generations of Ph.D. students and often are day-to-day advisors. Unfortunately, it’s a role that the Canadian academic system hasn’t fully embraced in terms of career development—I cannot apply for my own grants, for example. I oversee several projects and collaborations in our lab, so meetings with students and collaborators (often friends) all over the world and time zones are part of my daily schedule. Because I revel in helping and enabling others’ work, you can often find me on GitHub (https://github.com/mrikasper) answering user requests for the public software packages I co-maintain (TAPAS UniQC for fMRI quality control and TAPAS PhysIO for physiological noise modeling).

After work, evenings are reserved for the family, and it is pure joy to relive the curiosity and excitement about the world through our children’s eyes: the older one educating me about exo- and dwarf planets (I feel sorry for Pluto), while the younger one is still validating gravity with everything he can get hold on from the dinner table.

I am truly blessed with a beautiful family: my wife and two sons (0.6 and 5.7 years old). My wife Andreea is an assistant professor in computational psychiatry (we actually came to Toronto for her job!), so we have a deep understanding of each other’s work, not least because she uses functional MRI to elucidate the brain dynamics during tasks that are harder for people with psychiatric disorders. So there can be a lot of science-y talk at the dinner table among all the baby babbling. Before having kids, we did a lot of hiking and other sports (cycling!), and I loved the theatre as an amateur actor in student companies and as an audience member.

I attended my first ISMRM annual meeting in Toronto in 2008, still working on my master’s in Goettingen. It was overwhelming to say the least, and I felt a bit lost, but at the same time was excited about the wide range of applications of MRI as well as the range of people engaging. This year, ISMRM is coming full circle for me with the meeting visiting my new home in Toronto. And I really look forward to showing it to the many collaborators who have become friends along the way.

I joined the ISMRM to attend ISMRM Annual Meeting! The annual meeting was synonymous with the society for me.  Meanwhile, I have learnt that the ISMRM has a lot more to offer. Besides seeing old friends and making new ones at the annual meeting, there is a general sense of belonging for me around members from all backgrounds who are passionate about MRI.
I love the study groups and intimate workshops they are organizing; in fact, I just came back from a fantastic one in Sedona. This is where you meet all the people who wrote your favorite papers and can actually ask them about equation (7), as well as all the other students who struggled to understand it, and everyone is so friendly and patient to explain anything.
Over the last 15 years, I also appreciated the changes ISMRM has been making, with new initiatives focusing on equity, diversity and inclusivity (EDI), as well as open and reproducible research, and much more ways for participation of younger members, like trainee representatives in the study groups, Junior Fellows or the Secret Sessions. So, for any overwhelmed first-time attendee like I used to be: It’s your society, and even if things appear to move slowly, they do move, so keep up your optimism and initiative!

Many of my MRI colleagues won’t know that I wanted to be a poet but settled for puns. It’s a skill not easily transferred to English, my second and professional language. Meanwhile, being a father of two sons gave me some justification to specialize in dad jokes. The latest opportunity literally came around the corner while hiking in Sedona during the Data Sampling and Image Reconstruction Workshop this January: spotting little pig-like animals (javelinas), we mused whether this was the outdoor session on small-boar imaging…

I was an inaugural member of the family committee in 2019/20 after we struggled ourselves as a research couple with kids. I am very grateful that the accessibility grants of ISMRM sprang from that ad-hoc initiative and will hopefully be a permanent installment to support caregivers and those requiring care.

Beside ad-hoc committees, I think study groups are the place where members can make an impact fastest, and that’s why they are my favorite part of ISMRM; they are intimate enough to get to know all members and make yourself heard about a topic that everyone is really passionate about. During the pandemic, I really appreciated how study groups like Motion Correction and Brain Function installed regular seminar series to uphold this community feeling and keep these discussions going. And I love the challenges of the Reproducible Research study group because they make another aspect of sustainable science fun and collaborative: I took part in one where we reproduced Klaas Pruessmann’s code from a 20-year-old paper on cg-SENSE.

Growing up in East Germany during reunification, I firmly believe that democratization and participation are key to a successful and sustainable (academic) society. Being open, honest but respectful, and truly trying to understand each other’s position is close to my heart, and I hope I can contribute further to such a welcoming atmosphere at ISMRM. I think EDI as well as accessibility and reproducibility are not just nice to have, but critical for ISMRM to succeed among the major sustainability challenges of the 21st century.