Professor Sir Michael Brady, CCO

Sir Michael joined Oxford in 1985 from MIT, where he was Associate-Director of the AI Laboratory, now part of CSAIL.  He was appointed in 2010 as part-time Emeritus Professor of Oncological Imaging in the Department of Oncology, having retired from his 25-year Professorship in Information Engineering.  This recognizes his work in medical image analysis, specifically in cancer.  He was co-Director of the Oxford Cancer Imaging Centre.  After obtaining degrees in mathematics, he worked first in computing science, then in artificial intelligence and robotics, finally medical image analysis.    

He founded the International Journal of Robotics Research in 1991 and was its sole Editor until 2000. From 1986-2000 he was co-Editor of the leading journal Artificial Intelligence. From robotics in the early 1990s to medical image analysis and for his work on AI-based image analysis of cancer he was awarded multiple accolades, including election as a Fellow of the Royal Society, Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences, and as a Foreign Member of the Académie des Sciences.  He is a member of CRUK’s Early Detection and Diagnosis Committee, formerly Chair of Multidisciplinary Committee, and Science Committee.  Mike served for 19 years as Deputy Chairman of Oxford Instruments plc.  He has also founded 11 companies, of which 8 have been in medical imaging, including the NCIMI companies: Mirada Medical, Optellum, and Perspectum.  He also founded ScreenPoint Medical bv and the ASX-listedVolpara Health Technologies.  He was Knighted for services to Engineering Science in 2004. 

Why NCIMI is important

NCIMI is one of the most important developments in deploying AI into routine clinical use, particularly in the NHS.  NCIMI has deliberately brought together a diversity of AI-based technologies for deployment in a diverse set of hospital settings, pooling images in the BDI.  The diversity is a necessity, not a luxury, because AI programs have to work extremely well on the images that are encountered in clinical practice, from patients that reflect the totality of clinical practice, not just those in a small number of well-equipped teaching hospitals.  For me, NCIMI represents an opportunity for technologies from the Oxford ecosystem to be deployed throughout the NHS, further establishing Oxford as the epicentre of developing such technologies. 

His hobbies

When Sir Michael Brady is not working, he is an avid reader of novels and non-fiction, in English and French.  He spent 4 years living in the South of France with his wife. where they hiked in the hills and swam.  He also loves music, primarily classical music and jazz.  He plays (tenor) saxophone. 

A song that says something

Sir Michael Brady doesn’t really have a favourite song but Queen’s “I want to break free” or Bob Dylan’s “The times they are a-changing” (as sung by Nina Simone) are things that resonate with him.