2025 Michael A. King, PhD Research Award
In 2021 the department of radiology created the Michael A. King, PhD Research Award in honor of Professor Michael King who joined UMASS Department of Radiology in 1979 and has been continuously funded by the NIH for more than 3 decades.
The 2025 Michael A. King, PhD, Research Award was presented to Mark Epshtein, PhD a postdoctoral fellow working with Dr. Vania Anagnostakou and Matthew Gounis, PhD in the New England Center for Stroke Research. Mark is a biomedical engineer with rare expertise in computational and experimental hemodynamic simulations amongst other talents. He has submitted a number of patent applications and has proved to be very innovative. Here at UMASS he has done exceptional work with OCT and imaging of the subarachnoid space and proved to be a great team-player.
Nomination Letter Excerpt
I am writing this letter to nominate Dr. Mark Epshtein for the 2025 Michael A. King, PhD Research Award. Mark received his PhD from the Technion in a collaborative research project with UMASS Chan Medical School, supported by the United States-Israel Bi-National Science Foundation. The Technion is one of the most prestigious technical institutes in the world. His expertise in both computational and experimental hemodynamic simulations is rare. In addition, Mark is very innovative, having submitted a number of patent applications, including a recent disclosure to the Office of Technology Management here at UMASS Chan to build vascular phantoms out of realistic hydrogels. It was one of his more creative ideas to use interfacial fluid trapping to treat vascular lesions that ultimately was successful in receiving a large (and highly competitive) European research grant. In addition, Mark is one of the hardest working trainees I have mentored, driven by an enthusiasm for scientific discovery. It was for all of these reasons we were delighted to recruit him to UMASS Chan to work with at the New England Center for Stroke Research.
Very shortly upon joining us, working with Dr. Vania Anagnostakou, Mark discovered the ability to use an intravascular imaging technique (optical coherence tomography) to image the subarachnoid space. Although the structures of the subarachnoid space have been described by anatomists and neurosurgeons since the 1600s, their structure, function and relationship to human disease is not well studied due to the inability to image these structures in situ. The only way to explore the subarachnoid membranes is through the surgical microscope, which requires invasion of the cranial vault and hence inherent manipulation of their structure. Using this novel imaging technique, which has recently been translated to a clinical study, mapping of the subarachnoid membranes was performed by Mark and Vania which they published in the Journal of Neurointerventional Surgery, the leading journal in the fields of neurointervention and neuroimaging.
Since Mark joined UMASS Chan Medical School in 2021, some notable achievements include:
- Published 15 peer-reviewed, full-length manuscripts
- Authored ~20 conference proceedings.
- Wrote an NIH R01 application
Thank you for considering Mark’s nomination. He is delightful to have in our department and I believe fully deserving of this important honor.
The Michael A. King PhD Award is awarded annually at graduation to a trainee (medical student, doctoral candidate, resident, fellow, or post-doctoral fellow) who exemplifies (but do not have to meet all) the following characteristics demonstrating excellence in research:
- High impact peer-reviewed publications, including conference proceedings
- Securing extramural funding
- Conducting research that changes paradigms