Lena Maier-Hein
Affiliated Professor of Computer Vision
Research Interests
Professor Maier-Hein's teaching and research interests span medical imaging AI, surgical data science and AI validation.
In addition to her position at MBZUAI, Professor Maier-Hein is the Department Head at German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) and the Director of NCT Heidelberg.
- Habilitation at the University of Heidelberg, Germany
- Doctor of Engineering, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Germany
- Diploma (Dipl.-Inform.) in Computer Science, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Germany
- Winner of the Surgical MICCAI Lighthouse Challenge, 2025
- Winner of the RARE Challenge, 2025
- Medical Image Analysis Best Paper Award, 2024
- Baden-Wuerttemberg State Award, 2024
- Winner of Critical View of Safety Challenge (Robustness), 2024
- Winner of Phakir Keypoint Tracking Challenges, 2024
- German Cancer Award, 2024
- Best Digital Resource Award (Helmholtz AI)
- Winner of the PitVis Surgical Instrument Detection Challenge at the Medical Image Computing and Computer Assisted Intervention (MICCAI) Conference
- MICCAI Young Investigator Award (Supervisor)
- Winner of the MICCAI Surgical Action Triplet Challenge, 2022
- Winner of the IEEE International Symposium for Biomedical Imaging (ISBI) EndoCV Polyp Detection Challenge
- Winner of the GIANA Polyp Classification Challenge at MICCAI, 2021
- Best Innovation Award, Runner-up at IPCAI, 2021
- Elected Fellow of the International MICCAI Society, 2019
- Bench-to-Bedside Best Paper Award, MICCAI OR 2.0 Workshop, 2019
- Best Paper Award, Society for Medical Innovation and Technology (SMIT), 2019
- European Laboratory for Learning and Intelligent Systems (ELLIS) AI Fellow (Health), 2019
- Medical Image Analysis / MICCAI Best Paper Award, 2018
- Best Paper Award, Information Processing in Computer-Assisted Interventions (IPCAI), Runner-up, 2018
- Berlin-Brandenburg Academy Prize, 2017
- Best Pitch, Science Sparks Startup Event, 2017
- IPCAI Bench-to-Bedside Award, 2017
- Best Paper Award, International Society for Computer Assisted Surgery (ISCAS), 2017
- Emil Salzer Prize, DKFZ, 2016
- Best Paper Award, IPCAI, 2016
- Best Poster Award, Medizin 4.0 (Hanns-Martin Schleyer Stiftung), 2016
- Best Paper Award, IPCAI, 2015
- Best Paper Award, Computer- und Roboterassistierte Chirurgie (CURAC), 2015
- Kikuchi Frugal Technology Award (as Supervisor), ISCAS, 2015
- Best Paper, Runner-up, MICCAI Workshop CARE, 2014
- Top 40 under 40 in Science in/from Germany (Capital), 2014
- Heinz Maier-Leibnitz Prize (DFG), 2013
- Best Scientific Contribution, Bildverarbeitung für die Medizin (BVM), 2013
- Best Scientific Talk, 2nd Prize, SMIT Meeting, Tel Aviv, 2011
- Ingrid-zu-Solms Prize for Natural Sciences, Ingrid-zu-Solms Stiftung, 2010
- Waltraud-Lewenz Prize for Outstanding Scientific Work, DKFZ, 2009
- Innovation Award (Material Expenses), B. Braun-Stiftung, 2009
- Best Scientific Talk, BVM, 2008
- Best Graduate Award, Research Training Group 1126: Intelligent Surgery, 2007
- Best Scientific Poster, BVM, 2007
- Award for Outstanding Diploma Thesis, Förderverein des Forschungszentrums Informatik, Karlsruhe, 2006
- Over 30 Awards to Students of the Division (e.g. Best Thesis Awards), since 2013
- J. Sellner, A. Studier-Fischer, A. Bin Quasim, S. Seidlitz, N. Schreck, M. Tizabi, M. Wiesenfarth, A. Kopp-Schneider, J. Heinecke, J. Brandt, S. Knödler, C. M. Haney, G. Salg, B. Özdemir, M. Dietrich, M. S. Michel, F. Nickel, KF. Kowalewski, L. Maier-Hein. Xeno-learning: "Knowledge transfer across species in deep learning-based spectral image analysis", Nature Biomedical Engineering, 2026.
- A. Baumann, L. Ayala, S. Seidlitz, J. Sellner, A. Studier-Fischer, B. Özdemir, L. Maier-Hein/S. Ilic. CARL: "Camera-Agnostic Representation Learning for Spectral Image Analysis", ICLR, 2026.
- Silvia Seidlitz, Katharina Hölzl, Ayca von Garrel, Jan Sellner, Stephan Katzenschlager, Tobias Hölle, Dania Fischer, Maik von der Forst, Felix CF Schmitt, Markus A Weigand, Lena Maier-Hein/Maximilian Dietrich: "New spectral imaging biomarkers for sepsis and mortality in intensive care", Science Advances, 2025.
- P. Godau, P. Kalinowski, E. Christodoulou, A. Reinke, M. Tizabi, L. Ferrer, P. F. Jäger, and L. Maier-Hein: "Navigating prevalence shifts in image analysis algorithm deployment", Medical Image Analysis, 2025 (Best Paper in Medical Image Analysis - Special Issue MICCAI 2023).
- L. Maier-Hein, A. Reinke, P. Godau, M. D. Tizabi, F. Buettner, E. Christodoulou, B. Glocker, F. isensee, J. Kleesiek, M. Kozubek, M. Reyes, M. A. Riegler, M. Wiesenfarth, A. E. Kavur, C. H. Sudre, M. Baumgartner, M. Eisenmann, D. Heckmann-Nötzel, T. Rädsch, L. Acion, M. Antonelli, T. Arbel, S. Bakas, A. Benis, M. Blaschko, M. J. Cardoso, V. Cheplygina, B. A. Cimini, G. S. Collins, K. Farahani, L. Ferrer, A. Galdran, B. van Ginneken, R. Haase, D. A. Hashimoto, M. M. Hoffman, M. Huisman, P. Jannin, C. E. Kahn, D. Kainmueller, B. Kainz, A. Karargyris, A. Karthikesalingam, H. Kenngott, F. Kofler, A. Kopp-Schneider, A. Kreshuk, T. Kurc, B. A. Landman, G. Litjens, A. Madani, K. Maier-Hein, A. L. Martel, P. Mattson, E. Meijering, B. Menze, K. G.M. Moons, H. Müller, B. Nichyporuk, F. Nickel, J. Petersen, N. Rajpoot, N. Rieke, J. Saez-Rodriguez, C. I. Sánchez, S. Shetty, M. van Smeden, R. M. Summers, A. A. Taha, A. Tiulpin, S. A. Tsaftaris, B. Van Calster, G. Varoquaux and P. F. Jäger. Metrics reloaded: "Recommendations for image analysis validation. Nature Methods", pp: 195-212 (2024).
- L. Ayala, T. J. Adler, S. Seidlitz, S. Wirkert, C. Engels, A. Seitel, J. Sellner, A. Aksenov, M. Bodenbach, P. Bader, S. Baron, A. Vemuri, M. Wiesenfarth, N. Schreck, D. Mindroc, M. Tizabi, S. Pirmann, B. Everitt, A. Kopp-Schneider, D. Teber and L. Maier-Hein: "Spectral imaging enables contrast agent-free real-time ischemia monitoring in laparoscopic surgery". Science Advances, Vol 9, Issue 10, 2023.