Leonardo
Rivera-Rivera

I am an Assistant Professor of Radiology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where I also serve as Imaging Core Co-Leader and MRI Service Leader for the Wisconsin Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center (WADRC). In these roles, I coordinate Imaging Core resources, provide neuroimaging expertise for mentoring, research, and data analysis, and oversee MRI protocol development, automated image processing, and quality control for the WADRC and affiliated studies. I completed my undergraduate studies at the University of Puerto Rico-Humacao and received a PhD in physics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. My scientific interests center on developing and translating robust, quantitative MRI technologies that generate reliable biomarkers of cerebrovascular and brain health. These tools are designed to improve the evaluation and mechanistic understanding of vascular contributions to ADRDs and other neurological disorders. Our group has spearheaded the application of 4D flow MRI to characterize cerebrovascular hemodynamics in aging and Alzheimer’s disease, including some of the earliest studies in this area. This work has fostered broad interdisciplinary collaborations across neuroradiology, medical physics, geriatrics, psychology, cardiology, neurosurgery, and biomedical engineering, complementing my expertise in MRI and neuroimaging with clinical research in vascular and neurodegenerative diseases.