Adam Gaunt
My beginnings were at Nottingham Trent university where is did my masters on MRI and materials imaging. After four very enjoyable and worthwhile years, I crossed the river to the University of Nottingham. I am a Nottingham boy born and bred but still love living and working in the city.
My project supervisor is Dr Walter Kockenberger and my research group is focused on Dynamic Nuclear Polarisation (DNP) based at the Sir Peter Mansfield Magnetic Resonance Centre in Nottingham.
DNP is a process that is employed to extract more signal from a sample by exploiting the fact that the electrons in a sample have a much greater gyromagnetic ratio than that of the protons. By using the correct power and frequency of microwave it is possible to transfer polarization from the electrons to the protons in the sample, this gives a net effect of increasing the polarization. This higher number of polarised spins means that smaller samples can be analysed without a drop in signal. Therefore DNP is opening the door to improved microscopic NMR imaging applications.
My Project involves developing a system that impalements the SENSE array coil with disillusion DNP in order to collect high resolution images which take maximum advantage of the increased signal. This is done by undersampling K-space and then carrying out reconstruction in the image domain.
When not concentrating on my research and studies I love to be active by playing ultimate Frisbee, badminton or rugby. I am also a keen guitarist and pianist but only when no one is listening.
Updates:
- DNP symposium (August 2015)
- Imaging on homebuild probe!
- NMR Aplicatons Meeting (July 2015)
- IMRCDT workshop (April 2015)