Luke Reynolds

Luke Reynolds studies how brains relax. He is working through his third year as a PhD student in physics at the University of British Columbia though originally from central Illinois in the US and studying physics in Colorado and southern New Zealand in between. The fundamentals of relaxation in brain MRI, the phenomenon that creates image contrast, lack a precise description which would allow for better research and diagnosis prospects in future hospitals. Luke works to study the finer points of the molecular physics inside the brain leading to the relaxation forming many MRI images. This work places him in a lab running experiments with an NMR spectrometer, a higher resolution MRI machine, on samples that are similar to the brain (like hair conditioner). When not in the lab, he fills his time with music, growing plants, and playing outside.