Some 50 years ago, Larsen and Jacobi experimented with microwaves in the imaging of canine kidney. Their pioneering work triggered high hopes for a new diagnostic and imaging modality in medicine. Further research identified the main challenges and, to this day, continues unabated toward practical clinical solutions in the battle against breast and lung cancers, brain strokes and bone diseases. We will talk about these challenges and how they are being addressed with a focus on the real-time image-reconstruction methods and the microwave measurement equipment supplying the data. 

Natalia K. Nikolova (IEEE S’93–M’97–SM’05–F’11) received the Dipl. Eng. (Radioelectronics) degree from the Technical University of Varna, Bulgaria, in 1989, and the Ph.D. degree from the University of Electro-Communications, Tokyo, Japan, in 1997. From 1998 to 1999, she held a Postdoctoral Fellowship of the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) at two Canadian universities: Dalhousie University in Halifax and McMaster University in Hamilton. In 1999, she joined the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at McMaster University, where she is currently a Professor. Her research interests include inverse scattering, microwave imaging, as well as computer-aided analysis and design of high-frequency structures and antennas. Prof. Nikolova has authored more than 260 refereed manuscripts, 5 book chapters, and two books on the subject of microwave imaging. She has delivered 47 invited lectures around the world on the subjects of microwave imaging/radar and computer-aided electromagnetic analysis and design. 

Prof. Nikolova was a Canada Research Chair in High-frequency Electromagnetics from 2008 to 2018. She is a Fellow of the IEEE and a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Engineering (CAE). She served as an IEEE Distinguished Microwave Lecturer from 2010 to 2013.