Jessica Bastiaansen is an Associate Professor (non-tenured) and SNSF Eccellenza Fellow at the University of Bern, where she leads the Quantitative MR Imaging Science (QIS) Lab in the Department of Diagnostic, Interventional and Pediatric Radiology (DIPR).

Her research focuses on MRI sequence development and quantitative MR methods that provide more objective and reproducible information about tissue and disease. Her group develops new acquisition and reconstruction approaches, including phase-cycled balanced steady-state free precession (bSSFP), and translates them across magnetic field strengths and clinical applications.

A central goal of her research is to turn advances in MRI technology into practical and scalable healthcare solutions. This includes making imaging faster and more robust, developing measurements that can be transferred across scanners and clinical environments, and creating tools that can ultimately support diagnosis and treatment decisions. The QIS Lab works across applications in the brain, heart, liver, and musculoskeletal system, with a growing focus on women’s health and other areas where current imaging does not yet adequately address clinical needs.

Her research is strongly interdisciplinary, bringing together MR physics, engineering, clinical research, and industry. At the Translational Imaging Center in Bern, she works closely with researchers and clinicians across disciplines and contributes to the methodological development of the 3T and 7T MRI platforms. Jessica has secured approximately CHF 4 million in competitive research funding and is an inventor on several patents in MRI technology. One of these, LIBRE, has been implemented at multiple clinical sites in collaboration with Siemens Healthineers. Her group is also committed to open science and to making research tools available beyond the originating laboratory.

Before establishing her group in Bern, Jessica conducted research at EPFL, Lausanne University Hospital (CHUV), and the California Institute of Technology (Caltech). Her experience spans preclinical and clinical MRI systems from 1.5T to 14T.

In 2019, she was selected as a Junior Fellow of the International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine (ISMRM). She has since served on the ISMRM Annual Meeting Program Committee and contributed to the scientific organization of its annual meeting. Alongside research, she is committed to mentoring young scientists and building collaborations across scientific and clinical disciplines.

Explore the QIS Lab’s research and projects to learn more.

Annual Meeting Program Committee (ISMRM)
Junior Fellow of the ISMRM
Fellow of the SCMR

Freiburgstrasse 3
3010 Bern, Switzerland
Email: jessica.bastiaansen at unibe.ch

(2026) Associate Professor (non-tenured)
(2026) Habilitation in Medical Imaging
(2021 – now) SNSF Eccellenza Fellow
(2017-2021) SNSF Ambizione Fellow
(2014-2017) Postdoctoral Fellow at CHUV
(2013) PhD in Physics EPFL
(2009) MSc in Biomedical Engineering at TU Eindhoven and CALTECH