Rate My Professor Gordon Waiter

Dr Gordon Waiter is a Reader at the University of Aberdeen in the School of Medicine, Medical Sciences and Nutrition. He graduated from the Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen, in 1989 with a BSc (Hons) in Physical Sciences majoring in Physics. He then worked as a Research Assistant in the Department of Medical Physics at Dundee University developing MR imaging test objects. He returned to the University of Aberdeen in 1991 to undertake a PhD in Medical Physics. He joined the staff of the University of Aberdeen in 1996 as a research fellow collaborating with the Department of Biomedical Physics and the NHS Department of Cardiology on image analysis methods for the detection of hibernating myocardium. In 2001 he joined the School of Psychology to help initiate functional magnetic resonance imaging on a new 1.5T research scanner. In 2004 he joined the Department of Radiology, now part of the Aberdeen Biomedical Imaging Centre, continuing the development of fMRI techniques including paradigm design, data analysis, acquisition, quality control and image analysis. He was appointed Reader in 2021.

Dr Waiter holds qualifications including PhD, CPhys, FInstP, CSci and FIPEM. He serves as Director of the Aberdeen Biomedical Imaging Centre and Associate Director of the Aberdeen Centre for Health Data Science. He is an Honorary Clinical Scientist and MR Safety Expert with NHS Grampian and a member of the North of Scotland Research Ethics Committee 2. His research focuses on brain plasticity and cognition, with particular interest in the mechanisms of age-related cognitive decline and the roles of inflammation and immunosenescence in brain ageing. He employs a multisystem approach combining computational neuroimaging, biochemistry and statistical modelling, applying these methods to conditions including cognitive decline, brain fog and Long COVID. Dr Waiter is Programme Co-ordinator for the MSc in Medical Imaging and teaches on related postgraduate courses in biomedical physics and medical imaging.