PeopleofSuperintelligence

Researcher

Elizabeth Bullitt

Also known as E. Bullitt

Elizabeth Bullitt is a retired neurosurgeon and medical-image researcher whose career brought image analysis to studies of brain vessels. She completed Duke’s Division of Neurosurgery residency as the first woman in 1981, and by October 2005 she had become the first woman in surgery to join the staffs of the Mayfield Neurological Institute and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. At UNC, she left clinical practice for full-time research and used MR angiography to study brain tumor response and healthy aging; her paper on population shape regression won ICCV’s Marr Prize in 2007. By 2014, she had retired and decided to see the world’s wild places.

Born
1949

Years link to their sources.

Timeline

  1. 1981

    A Duke neurosurgery residency

    She completes Duke’s Division of Neurosurgery residency as the program’s first woman in 1981.

  2. By October 2005

    First woman at Mayfield

    By October 2005, she is the first woman in surgery to join the Mayfield Neurological Institute staff.

  3. By October 2005

    First woman at UNC

    By October 2005, she is the first woman in surgery to join the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill staff.

  4. 2005–2006

    A UNC research professorship

    By October 2005, she is a professor of surgery and an adjunct professor of radiology and computer science at UNC, where she has left clinical practice for full-time research. In 2006, she holds the Van L. Weatherspoon Jr. Distinguished Professorship of Neurosurgery.

  5. 2006

    Tumor vessel analysis

    In 2006, she and colleagues use sequential MR angiography to track vessel-shape changes during treatment of metastatic breast cancer in the brain. Their preliminary study finds vessel shape may predict tumor response several months in advance of traditional methods.

  6. 2007

    The ICCV Marr Prize

    In 2007, her paper with Bradley Davis, P. Thomas Fletcher and Sarang Joshi wins ICCV’s Marr Prize for “Population Shape Regression From Random Design Data.”

  7. 2010

    Imaging healthy aging

    In 2010, she and colleagues analyze MR angiograms from healthy volunteers across five age groups and find larger vessel radii in males across all anatomical regions.

  8. By 2014

    Retirement and wildlife travel

    By 2014, she is retired and chooses to see the world’s wild places.

Career

  1. From 2005Mayfield Neurological Institute
  2. University of North Carolina at Chapel HillProfessor of Surgery and Adjunct Professor of Radiology and Computer Science

Education

  1. 1981Duke UniversityNeurosurgery residency

From the biography.

  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 Elizabeth Bullitt yet. Send us a free-licensed photo.

  1. Timeline | Women in Duke Health exhibits.mclibrary.duke.edu. Checked 22 October 2026.
  2. Elizabeth Bullitt Interview | Women in Duke Health exhibits.mclibrary.duke.edu. Checked 22 October 2026.
  3. Celebrating Women’s History Month: Women in Duke Surgery | Duke Department of Surgery surgery.duke.edu. Checked 22 October 2026.
  4. UNC Faculty Members Named to Distinguished Professorships | Newswise newswise.com. Checked 22 October 2026.
  5. Tumor Therapeutic Response and Vessel Tortuosity: Preliminary Report in Metastatic Breast Cancer pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov. Checked 22 October 2026.
  6. Homepage of Changyin Zhou cs.columbia.edu. Checked 22 October 2026.
  7. The effects of healthy aging on intracerebral blood vessels visualized by magnetic resonance angiography pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov. Checked 22 October 2026.
  8. Q-and-A: Going to Polar Extremes nathab.com. Checked 22 October 2026.