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Alison Noble

CBE FRS FREng FIET
Alison Noble Royal Society (cropped).jpg
Noble in 2017
Born (1965-01-28) 28 January 1965 (age 60)
Nottingham, England
Education Maidstone Grammar School for Girls
Alma mater University of Oxford (BA, DPhil)
Scientific career
Fields
Institutions
Thesis Descriptions of image surfaces (1989)
Doctoral advisor J. Michael Brady

Julia Alison Noble, born on January 28, 1965, is a brilliant British engineer. She is a top professor of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Oxford. She also helps lead a big science division there.

Professor Noble co-founded a company called Intelligent Ultrasound Limited. This company uses special technology for medical imaging, which means taking pictures inside the body. From 2012 to 2016, she was the director of the Oxford Institute of Biomedical Engineering (IBME). In 2023, she became a Foreign Secretary for The Royal Society, a very old and respected group of scientists.

Becoming an Engineer

Julia Alison Noble was born in Nottingham, England. She went to Maidstone Grammar School for Girls in Kent. Later, she studied at St Hugh's College, Oxford.

In 1986, she earned a first-class degree in Engineering Science. She then continued her studies. In 1989, she received her Doctor of Philosophy (DPhil) degree. Her research focused on computer vision and image segmentation. This means teaching computers to "see" and understand parts of images.

Career and Research in Medical Imaging

Professor Noble started her career in 1989. She worked as a research scientist at the General Electric Corporate R&D Center in New York. There, she helped create inspection systems for aircraft engines.

In 1995, she returned to the University of Oxford. She became a lecturer, focusing on how computers could help with medical problems. In 2001, she became a full Professor. She was the first woman to become a Statutory Professor in Engineering at Oxford.

How Her Research Helps Doctors

Professor Noble's work is in medical image computing. This field combines medical imaging with computational science. Her goal is to help doctors make better decisions. She studies how to automatically get useful information from medical ultrasound scans.

She also develops machine learning solutions. These are like teaching computers to solve problems in analyzing medical images. Her research has helped many PhD students. Her work has received funding from important research groups.

Professor Noble also co-founded Intelligent Ultrasound. She started this company with her long-time colleague, Aris Papageorghiou. This company helps bring her research ideas to real-world use.

Awards and Recognition

Professor Noble has received many important awards. In 2017, she became a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS). This is a very high honor for scientists.

She was also recognized by the British Empire. In 2013, she was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE). In 2023, she was promoted to Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE). These awards were for her great work in engineering and medical imaging.

She is also a trustee for The Oxford Trust. This charity helps encourage young people to study science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. She also served as President of the MICCAI Society. In 2015, she received the Laura Bassi Award. In 2019, she was awarded the Gabor Medal by the Royal Society. This was for her work in making medical ultrasound scans easier to understand.

Personal Life

When she was a student, Professor Noble was a coxswain for the Oxford University Women's Lightweight Rowing Club. She took part in the Henley Boat Races in 1985.

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