Amber Simpson, PhD

Area of Study / Keywords

medical imaging artificial intelligence computational oncology

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About

I am a fellow of the Alberta Machine Intelligence Institute.

I am an expert in cancer imaging artificial intelligence and develop innovative computational strategies to improve human health. I have authored over 90 peer-reviewed papers in high-impact journals such as Nature Communications, Cell, Cancer Research, and Computers in Medicine and Biology. My research has been presented at leading national and international venues, including the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.

I earned my BSc from Trent University (2000) and PhD in Computer Science from Queen’s University (2010), followed by a postdoctoral fellowship at Vanderbilt University in the Department of Biomedical Engineering. I was previously the Canada Research Chair in Biomedical Computing and Informatics at Queen’s University and an Associate Professor in the Department of Biomedical and
Molecular Sciences and the School of Computing at Queen’s University as well as an Affiliate of the Vector Institute for AI and a Senior Investigator at the Canadian Cancer Trials Group. Before returning to Queen’s in 2019, I was an Assistant Attending Computational Biologist at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and an Assistant Professor at Weill Cornell Medical College.

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Research

My contributions have been recognized with numerous awards, including the American Association for Cancer Research Career Development Award (2016) and the Mihran & Mary Basmajian Award for Excellence in Health Research (2020). My research is supported by leading funding agencies such as the NIH, CIHR, NSERC, SSHRC, and CFI.

Beyond my research, I am deeply engaged in the scientific community. I am a chartered member of NIH study section, a Senior Editor at Cancer Research, and serve on the advisory board of the Digital Health Discovery Platform. I also led Kingston’s inclusion in the Terry Fox Marathon of Hope Cancer Centres Network and was the Founding Director of the Centre for Health Innovation, a partnership between Kingston Health Sciences Centre and Queen’s University. In these roles, I spearheaded the expansion of research infrastructure—including a histopathology suite, biobank, and genomics facility—ensuring access to state-of-the-art resources for patient-centred research.

Hamghalam, Mohammad, Peoples, Jacob J, Kobayashi, Kaitlyn S M, Park, Grace, Kwak, Erin, Bunker, E Claire, Gangai, Natalie, Gonen, Mithat, Chun, Yun Shin, Kang, HyunSeon Christine, Do, Richard K G, Simpson, Amber L

Computer methods and programs in biomedicine. 2026 January; 10.1016/j.cmpb.2026.109233

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Piliposyan, Mane, Peoples, Jacob J, Hamghalam, Mohammad, Mojtahedi, Ramtin, Kobayashi, Kaitlyn, Bunker, E Claire, Gangai, Natalie, Kang, Hyunseon C, Chun, Yun Shin, Muise, Christian, Do, Richard K G, Simpson, Amber L

Journal of medical imaging (Bellingham, Wash.). 2026 January; 10.1117/1.jmi.13.1.014505

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Shi, Yongyi, Niu, Chuang, Simpson, Amber L, De Man, Bruno, Do, Richard, Wang, Ge

IEEE transactions on radiation and plasma medical sciences. 2025 January; 10.1109/trpms.2025.3551946

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Ashofteh Barabadi, Maede, Zhu, Xiaodan, Chan, Wai Yip, Simpson, Amber L, Do, Richard K G

Frontiers in artificial intelligence. 2025 January; 10.3389/frai.2025.1513674

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Lee, Daniel J, Hamghalam, Mohammad, Wang, Lily, Lin, Hui-Ming, Colak, Errol, Mamdani, Muhammad, Simpson, Amber L, Lee, John M

Biomedical engineering online. 2025 January; 10.1186/s12938-025-01376-7

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Antonelli, Michela, Reinke, Annika, Bakas, Spyridon, Farahani, Keyvan, Kopp-Schneider, Annette, Landman, Bennett A, Litjens, Geert, Menze, Bjoern, Ronneberger, Olaf, Summers, Ronald M, van Ginneken, Bram, Bilello, Michel, Bilic, Patrick, Christ, Patrick F, Do, Richard K G, Gollub, Marc J, Heckers, Stephan H, Huisman, Henkjan, Jarnagin, William R, McHugo, Maureen K, Napel, Sandy, Pernicka, Jennifer S Golia, Rhode, Kawal, Tobon-Gomez, Catalina, Vorontsov, Eugene, Meakin, James A, Ourselin, Sebastien, Wiesenfarth, Manuel, Arbeláez, Pablo, Bae, Byeonguk, Chen, Sihong, Daza, Laura, Feng, Jianjiang, He, Baochun, Isensee, Fabian, Ji, Yuanfeng, Jia, Fucang, Kim, Ildoo, Maier-Hein, Klaus, Merhof, Dorit, Pai, Akshay, Park, Beomhee, Perslev, Mathias, Rezaiifar, Ramin, Rippel, Oliver, Sarasua, Ignacio, Shen, Wei, Son, Jaemin, Wachinger, Christian, Wang, Liansheng, Wang, Yan, Xia, Yingda, Xu, Daguang, Xu, Zhanwei, Zheng, Yefeng, Simpson, Amber L, Maier-Hein, Lena, Cardoso, M Jorge

Nature communications. 2022 January; 10.1038/s41467-022-30695-9

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Williams, Travis L, Saadat, Lily V, Gonen, Mithat, Wei, Alice, Do, Richard K G, Simpson, Amber L

Computer assisted surgery (Abingdon, England). 2021 January; 10.1080/24699322.2021.1994014

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