About
Swati Rane Levendovszky
913-574-1499
slevendovszky at kumc dot edu
I am an Associate Professor of Radiology at the University of Kansas Medical Center since 2025. I am the Director of the Hoglund Biomedical Imaging Center (HBIC), a University cost-center providing cutting-edge technical MRI, photon-counting CT, and EEG services to researchers in and around the University. The primary focus of my research lab is the development of clinically feasible, targeted imaging, and end-to-end analyses pipeline for functional and anatomical imaging to improve the diagnostic capabilities of MRI. Specifically, I develop novel perfusion imaging approaches to better understand cerebrovascular pathology for all major MRI platforms.
My research is currently funded by the National Institutes of Health, Department of Defense, Philips, Radiological Society of North America. Past funding includes the Michael J Fox Foundation and W. Garfield Weston Brain Institute, and Alzheimer's Association. I have received several competitive awards such as the Elliot Newmann Society Scholar Award and the Charleston Conferences on Alzheimer's Disease Young Investigator Award.
Recent talks
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Featured speaker, "Multi-modal imaging of small vessel disease", the 2025 ACT Symposium, Online, 5/13/2025
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Invited talk at International Cerebral Amyloid Angiopathy Conference titled, “Leveraging contrast MRI to investigate the glymphatic system in human brain”, Munich, 10/15/2024
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Invited panel discussion by International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine, Perfusion Study Group titled, “Intravenous Gadolinium-based Imaging of Blood/CSF Exchange Transport”, online, 10/29/2024
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Invited talk at Sleep, the joint annual meeting of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine and Sleep Research Society titled “Unlocking the Brain’s Cleansing System: Glymphatic Imaging with MRI”, Houston, 6/5/2024.
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Invited talk for the Biology of Neurodegeneration (BOND) Seminar titled, “Multi-modal imaging perspectives on small vessel disease and related biological processes”, Oregon Health and Science University, 4/26/2024
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Invited talk for the Movement Disorders Journal Club titled, “Unravelling Parkinson’s disease through the MRE lens”, Oregon Health and Science University, 4/25/2024
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Invited talk for the Wasatch Winter Neurovascular Imaging Meeting titled, “Multi-modal imaging of small vessel disease”, University of Utah, 3/9/2024
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Investigating the use of multi-echo, multi-delay ASL in neurodegenerative diseases, DEBBIE COnsortium Meeting, October 4, 2023
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Comparing human and animal physiology in the context of neurofluids, Invited tutorial presentation, ISMRM workshop on Neurofluids: Anatomy, Physiology, and Imaging. Sept. 21-24, 2022, Rome, Italy.
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Can in vivo MRI predict postmortem pathology? Improving the diagnostic capability of neuroimaging, Keynote Address, NINDS workshop: Future of In vivo Neuropathological Diagnosis through Postmortem Analyses Workshop, July 13 -14, 2022
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A High-tech skull cap to soothe sleepless nights, All Science. No Fiction, OPB Science Series, featuring our work in their opening episode: A high-tech skull cap to soothe sleepless nights | All Science. No Fiction (Youtube) 6/1/2022
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Imaging the glymphatic system with dynamic contrast MRI, ISMRM, Perfusion MRI for Mapping Neurofluid Circulation and Exchange, ISMRM 2022, 5/11/2022
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Understanding degenerative disease mechanisms in the white matter using advanced MRI, Albert White Matter Research Institute, 3/29/2022
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Imaging cerebrovascular pathology in degenerative diseases, SLU breakfast Club Seminar, 1/20/2022
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Recent description of our research in sleep enhancement 12/3/2021
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Pain and Brain: IADR General Session: Neuroimaging in Dentistry 7/16/2021
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AD@UW April 23, 2021: Imaging (YouTube): Works in progress at the UW ADRC Imaging and Biomarker Core. 4/23/2021
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What Can you Gain from GAAIN: Overview and Case Specific Applications, 12/17/2020
Academics
Current Positions
Associate Professor (2025-), Radiology, University of Kansas Medical Center, Kansas City, KS, USA
- Focus: Vascular Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Neurodegenerative diseases, Glymphatic Imaging
Director (2025-), Hoglund Biomedical Imaging Center, University of Kansas Medical Center, Kansas City, KS, USA
- Focus: MRI sequence development, scanning services, PC-CT and EEG services
Past Positions
Associate Professor (2022-2025), Radiology, Integrated Brain Imaging Center, University of Washington Medical Center, Seattle, WA, USA
- Focus: Vascular Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Neurodegenerative diseases, Glymphatic Imaging
Director (2021-2025), Diagnostic Imaging Sciences Center, University of Washington Medical Center, Seattle, WA, USA
- Focus: MRI sequence development, scanning services
- Members: Cole Anderson, Tina Guan, Tim Wilbur, Catherine Delos Santos, Jason Ostenson, Luisana Valero
Interim Director (2018-2021), Diagnostic Imaging Sciences Center, University of Washington Medical Center, Seattle, WA, USA
- Focus: MRI sequence development, scanning services
- Members: Chris Gatenby, Tina Guan, Tim Wilbur, Liza Young
Assistant Professor (2017-2022), Radiology, Integrated Brain Imaging Center, University of Washington Medical Center, Seattle, WA, USA
- Focus: Vascular Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Neurodegenerative diseases
- Mentors: Tom Grabowski
Visiting Scholar (2017-2019), Symbiosis International University, Pune, India
- Focus: Parkinson's Disease
- Collaborators: Madhura Ingalhalikar, Jitender Saini
Act. Assistant Professor, Radiology, Integrated Brain Imaging Center, University of Washington Medical Center, Seattle, WA, USA
- Focus: Vascular Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Neurodegenerative diseases
- Mentors: Tom Grabowski
Instructor, Radiology and Radiological Sciences, Vanderbilt University Institute of Imaging Science, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, USA
- Focus: Vascular Magnetic Resonance Imaging
- Mentors: John Gore, Manus Donahue, Angela Jefferson
Teaching
Mentoring philosophy
I mentor with curiosity, structure, and care. I encourage people in my lab to ask hard questions, challenge assumptions, and bring new perspectives to their science. Creativity and rigor are not opposites—I expect both.
I am highly organized and deeply invested in my trainees’ success. I set clear expectations, give direct and constructive feedback, and take mentoring seriously as a responsibility. At the same time, I tailor my approach to each trainee’s goals, background, and career path, whether that leads to academia, industry, or beyond.
Compassion and mutual respect are central to my mentoring approach. I work to create a lab environment that is collaborative, inclusive, and respectful. People come to science with different experiences and face different barriers, and I see it as my job to make sure everyone has access to mentorship, opportunities, and advocacy. Differences in perspective strengthen the science we do.
Research is hard, and setbacks happen. I try to model calm, resilience, and problem-solving rather than urgency or panic. My goal is to help trainees become independent, confident scientists who are technically strong, intellectually curious, and supportive of others.
Courses
Medical Physics, Radiology, University of Washington, 2022, 2023, 2024
- Pulse Sequences 1 (Archived PDF) - NOTE: This PDF is archived content and may not meet current WCAG standards, but accessible alternatives are available upon request to slevendovszky@kumc.edu.
- Pulse Sequences 2 (Archived PDF) - NOTE: This PDF is archived content and may not meet current WCAG standards, but accessible alternatives are available upon request to slevendovszky@kumc.edu.
BIOEN 546, Bioengineering, University of Washington, 2019, 2023
- Fourier Transforms
- Central Slice Theorem/Filtered Back Projection
- Rays
NBIO 559, Neuroscience, University of Washington, 2016-2018
- Neurobiology of disease
Training
Postdoctoral training in Radiology and Radiological Sciences, Vanderbilt University Institute of Imaging Science, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, USA
- Focus: Multi-modal Magnetic Resonance Imaging
- Mentor: John Gore, Manus Donahue
- Collaborators: Brandon Ally, Stephan Heckers, Angela Jefferson
Doctorate of Philosophy (PhD) in Bioengineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, USA.
- Thesis: Diffusion Tensor Imaging at Long Diffusion Time
- Mentor: Timothy Duong
Master of Science (MS) in Electrical Engineering, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, USA.
- Thesis: Parallel Magnetic Resonance Imaging
- Mentor: Jim Ji
Bachelor of Engineering (BE) in Electronics and Telecommunications, Pune Institute of Computer Technology, Pune, Maharashtra, India.