The UAB Department of Radiology is pleased to announce a change in leadership in the Human Imaging Core (HUMI).

Junaid Raja, M.D., MSPH, FACP, co-director of Pediatric Vascular and Interventional Radiology, program director of the Integrated Interventional Radiology Residency, and assistant professor in the Division of Vascular and Interventional Radiology, will assume the roles of the HUMI Core Facility director and Radiology Data Safety Monitoring Board chair effective September 2025. 

Raja completed residencies in Internal Medicine and Diagnostic and Interventional Radiology at Yale New Haven Hospital prior to joining the faculty at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

He is an active clinical faculty in advanced pediatric interventions including pediatric solid tumor oncology, vascular anomalies, orthopedic, and hepatobiliary diseases as well as adult interventions for sarcomas, lung tumors, lymphovascular disorders, and cholangioscopic guided biliary diseases. 

Raja is an enthusiastic educator and serves as the program director for the integrated interventional radiology residency and has mentored numerous students over the years for the UAB Medical Student Summer Research Program. His research interests include pediatric solid tumor oncology, sarcomas and bone tumors, vascular anomalies, deep venous disease, and access to interventional care for patients in rural communities. 

Nationally, Raja serves on the communications committee for the Society of Interventional Oncology and is the UAB representative for the NCCN Pediatric Bone Sarcoma Panel. 

He is honored to be invited into this role and looks forward to close collaboration with the HUMI team and the rest of the O’Neal Comprehensive Cancer Center. 

Steven Rothenberg, M.D., assistant professor of diagnostic radiology, an associate scientist at the Center for Clinical and Translational Science (CCTS), director of the Imaging Informatics Fellowship program, and co-director of the AI in Imaging group, will continue in his role of associate director of HUMI under Raja’s leadership where he will oversee the HUMI data service line including dataset curation, de-identification, and advanced image processing. Rothenberg’s team has completed 39 projects for investigators UAB including cross departmental work with computer science, school of medicine, O’Neil Cancer Center, cardiology, pulmonology, nephrology, oncology, gastroenterology, neurology, neurosurgery, gynecology, and anesthesia.

We want to thank Sam Galgano, M.D., vice chair of quality and patient experience, chief of the abdominal imaging section and associate professor, for his work as the director of HUMI and his dedication and service to the department.