Umar Mahmood, MD, PhD, has been appointed chair of the department of radiology at Stanford Medicine, effective February 1, 2026.
Umar Mahmood, MD, PhD.RSNA
Mahmood, who is is current president of the RSNA and serves as chief of nuclear medicine and molecular imaging at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) in Boston, will take the helm at Stanford as healthcare enters "a period of rapid change," the RSNA said in a statement.
RSNA 2025 will mark the completion of his term. He has selected the theme "Imaging the Individual" that will address the future of precision medicine and complements his role as director of the Center for Precision Imaging at MGH.
Mahmood's primary research for the past 30 years has been in molecular imaging and its application to guide precision medicine.
During his more than 25 years at MGH, Mahmood has conducted PET, optical and MR imaging research, and has focused on translational efforts to better understand drivers of cancer, including the tumor microenvironment, cancer signaling pathways, changes in cancer metabolism and the interaction of the immune system with tumors, the RSNA and Stanford noted in their respective announcements.
Mahmood has also received more than $25 million in grant funding as principal investigator, primarily from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), for his research into these technologies and applications.
He has held numerous other leadership positions in the medical research community, including chair of the Board of Scientific Counselors of the Clinical Center of the NIH and roles on the board of directors of the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging and the Academy for Radiology and Biomedical Imaging Research.
After earning his bachelor’s degree from the California Institute of Technology, Mahmood achieved his medical degree and doctorate in biophysics and physiology from Cornell University. He also completed doctoral and postdoctoral work in tumor physiology at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and went on to complete his radiology residency at MGH in 2001, where he has since served on the faculty at MGH and Harvard Medical School.
"Throughout his career, Dr. Mahmood has demonstrated unwavering support for mentoring the next generation of physician scientists," Stanford noted in an announcement.
