PeopleofSuperintelligence

Researcher

Bradley Davis

Also known as B. Davis, Brad Davis

Bradley Davis is a computer vision researcher whose work applies image registration and statistical learning to medical imagery. He coauthored an unbiased atlas method in 2004, shared the 2007 ICCV Marr Prize for population shape regression, and earned a computer science PhD at UNC Chapel Hill in 2008. At UNC, he and Svetlana Lazebnik used manifold kernel regression on more than 3,000 web images to study facial shape and attractiveness. At Kitware, he coauthored an endoscopic image analysis paper in 2012, became Assistant Director of Business Development in 2013, and coauthored a rhesus macaque MRI database in 2017.

Timeline

  1. 2004

    An unbiased brain atlas

    In 2004, he coauthors “Unbiased Diffeomorphic Atlas Construction for Computational Anatomy” with Sarang Joshi, Matthieu Jomier and Guido Gerig. The method builds unbiased diffeomorphic atlases from MRI scans of two- and four-year-old populations.

  2. 2007

    The ICCV Marr Prize

    In 2007, his paper with P. Thomas Fletcher, Elizabeth Bullitt and Sarang Joshi receives the ICCV Marr Prize for “Population Shape Regression From Random Design Data.”

  3. 2008

    A computer science PhD

    He earns a computer science PhD at UNC Chapel Hill in 2008 with a dissertation titled “Medical Image Analysis via Frechet Means of Diffeomorphisms.” Sarang C. Joshi advises the dissertation, and Stephen Pizer chairs the committee.

  4. 2008

    Kernel regression on facial shape

    At UNC Chapel Hill, he and Svetlana Lazebnik study facial shape and attractiveness ratings in 2008 using manifold kernel regression on more than 3,000 web images.

  5. 2012

    Semantic encoding for endoscopy

    In 2012, he coauthors “Endoscopic image analysis in semantic space,” which proposes a low-dimensional semantic encoding of endoscopic imagery. The paper applies it to medical concept recognition, semantic image browsing and average-case image estimation.

  6. 2013

    Assistant Director at Kitware

    In 2013, Kitware promotes him to Assistant Director of Business Development, a role focused on customer relationships and company growth.

  7. 2017

    The rhesus macaque MRI database

    By 2017, he is affiliated with Kitware, Inc., as a coauthor of the UNC-Wisconsin rhesus macaque neurodevelopment database. The study presents longitudinal structural and diffusion MRI from 34 monkeys aged two weeks to 36 months, with images freely available online.

  1. More people shaping AI studied at Massachusetts Institute of Technology than at any other institutionIncludes University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. We estimate where the people shaping AI studied and where their careers led. Massachusetts Institute of Technology leads with 467 former students, including 291 recorded doctorates.
  2. The company share of AI researchers’ top papers was 31% in 2020–2024 and 8% in 1970–1974Includes University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. We estimate where the people shaping AI worked when their most-cited papers appeared: the company share was 31% in 2020–2024 and 8% in 1970–1974, and Google led all organizations in 2020–2024.
  3. The median h-index is 48 at universities and 14 at frontier AI labsIncludes University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The median h-index is 48 at universities and 14 at frontier AI labs. We compare publishing careers, recent citations, dual appointments and job moves across 2,420 university researchers and 308 frontier-lab researchers.
  4. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology trained or employed 44 of the 187 AI major-prize winners, more than any other universityIncludes University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology trained or employed 44 of the 187 AI major-prize winners, more than any other university. We compare doctorate and 5+ year employment links, career timing and current workplaces for 187 major-prize and 1,111 best-paper winners.

Colleagues

People named in this biography, and people with dated positions at the same organization in the same years.

Sources and credits

Photo: We have no published photo of Bradley Davis yet. Send us a free-licensed photo.

  1. Building a Better Brain Atlas – Scientific Computing and Imaging Institute sci.utah.edu. Checked 21 October 2026.
  2. Computer Vision Awards – The Computer Vision Foundation thecvf.com. Checked 21 October 2026.
  3. Doctoral Dissertations – UNC Computer Science cs.unc.edu. Checked 21 October 2026.
  4. Analysis of human attractiveness using manifold kernel regression - Illinois Experts experts.illinois.edu. Checked 21 October 2026.
  5. Endoscopic image analysis in semantic space - PMC pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov. Checked 21 October 2026.
  6. July 2013: Kitware News Part 2 kitware.com. Checked 21 October 2026.
  7. The UNC-Wisconsin Rhesus Macaque Neurodevelopment Database: A Structural MRI and DTI Database of Early Postnatal Development frontiersin.org. Checked 21 October 2026.