Heather M. Whitney, PhD is a research assistant professor in the Department of Radiology at the University of Chicago. Dr. Whitney received a Master of Science in Medical Physics from the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine and Master of Science and PhD in Physics from Vanderbilt University. While at Vanderbilt, she trained and conducted research at the Vanderbilt University Institute of Imaging Science with John Gore as her advisor, and additionally collaborated with faculty in the Department of Radiation Oncology. Before coming to the University of Chicago, she was a tenured professor of physics at a small liberal arts college, where she fostered an NIH-funded research program in medical physics in collaboration with faculty in Radiology at the University of Chicago.

At the University of Chicago, she conducts research in computer-aided diagnosis of breast and ovarian cancer, focusing on the modalities of dynamic contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging and ultrasound. Her primary areas of interest are in artificial intelligence and radiomics across the imaging and classification pipeline, from image acquisition to performance evaluation and data harmonization. She also conducts research and collaborates in MIDRC, the Medical Imaging and Data Resource Center. Within MIDRC she works on methods of task-based distributions, interoperability between data enclaves, and monitoring and studying the diversity and representativeness of the MIDRC data commons to foster research in AI and health disparities.