Rate My Professor Martin Ugander

Professor Martin Ugander, MD, PhD, FCSANZ, serves as Professor of Cardiac Imaging in the Faculty of Medicine and Health at the University of Sydney since 2019. He has been Director of Clinical Imaging there since 2020 and is a Staff Specialist in Cardiology at Royal North Shore Hospital, affiliated with the Kolling Institute. Ugander earned his MD in 2001 and PhD in 2006 from Lund University in Sweden, with his doctoral thesis titled "Dysfunctional but viable myocardium: ischemic heart disease assessed by MRI and SPECT." Following this, he conducted postdoctoral research in cardiovascular MRI and CT at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Bethesda, USA, from 2009 to 2011. From 2011 to 2019, he completed specialty training in Clinical Physiology at Karolinska University Hospital in Stockholm, Sweden, where he founded and led the Karolinska Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance clinical and translational research group. He holds an ongoing affiliation with Karolinska Institutet, is an Honorary Professor at St Vincent's Clinical School, Faculty of Medicine, UNSW since 2020, and was elected a Fellow of the Cardiac Society of Australia and New Zealand (FCSANZ) in 2019.

Ugander's research centers on advancing non-invasive imaging techniques to elucidate cardiac pathophysiology, with a particular emphasis on cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) imaging. He leads the University of Sydney Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance Group and has pioneered methods such as T1 mapping and extracellular volume (ECV) quantification to evaluate myocardial fibrosis, diastolic dysfunction, left ventricular hypertrophy, and microvascular dysfunction—key features in heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF) and coronary artery disease. His contributions extend to advanced electrocardiography for prognostic assessments, including heart age estimation. With approximately 290 peer-reviewed publications amassed over 10,000 citations, notable works include "Heart age estimated using explainable advanced electrocardiography" (2022, Scientific Reports) and developments in CMR diastolic stress testing. Ugander supervises postgraduate students across Honours, Masters, and PhD levels, contributes to teaching in cardiac imaging, and holds leadership positions such as board trustee of the Society for Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance and founder of Advanced ECG Systems. His work has received funding from sources including New South Wales Health.