Dr David Waddington

Dr David Waddington is a biomedical physicist at the University of Sydney who advances physics to develop fundamentally new magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) technologies. Since completing his PhD in 2018, he has established a research program at the Image X Institute that integrates MRI and artificial intelligence (AI) to adapt radiotherapy in response to changing tumour biology and anatomy. His work has attracted $6.8 million in research funding, including $2.9 million as Chief Investigator A, and has been supported by consecutive fellowships from the Cancer Institute NSW and the NHMRC (2020–22, 2023–27).

Dr Waddington has published 30 peer-reviewed papers, including first-author articles in Nature Communications and Science Advances, and has led national collaborations as MRI Development Lead in the $27 million+ Australian MRI-Linac program (2020–2024). In 2023, he was named a Junior Fellow of the International Society of Magnetic Resonance in Medicine. His research in MRI and AI has been recognised with international awards, including two ‘Best in Physics’ prizes (top 0.5%) at the American Association of Physicists in Medicine Annual Meetings (2020, 2022), and invited presentations at international conferences and TEDx.

During his PhD, he developed low-field MRI technologies for nanoparticle tracking and used a Fulbright Scholarship to build international collaborations with Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard University. His patented nanoparticle work has since led to industry partnerships with biotech companies that include Ferronova and Imagion.

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