PeopleofSuperintelligence

Researcher

Polina Golland

Polina Golland is an MIT computer scientist whose machine-learning research analyzes biomedical images. She grew up in Frunze, earned computer-science degrees at Technion and MIT, and joined the MIT faculty in 2003. Her AI work includes Fetal SMPL for fetal MRI and xvr for image-guided surgery. AIMBE elected her to its College of Fellows in 2021. As of October 2026, she is the Sunlin and Priscilla Chou Professor of EECS, a CSAIL principal investigator, and leader of the Medical Vision Group.

Timeline

  1. 1993–2001

    Studying at Technion and MIT

    She grows up in Frunze, Kyrgyzstan, and earns computer-science degrees at Technion in 1993 and 1995 before completing an EECS PhD at MIT in 2001.

  2. 2001–2003

    Joining the MIT faculty

    Her doctoral work at MIT develops algorithms to identify hippocampal shape variations tied to neurological disease. She joins the MIT faculty in 2003.

  3. 2015

    Promotion to full professor

    MIT promotes her to full professor, effective July 1, 2015. Her group builds statistical models of anatomical and functional variation from biomedical images and tracks changes tied to development or disease.

  4. 2021

    An AIMBE fellowship

    AIMBE elects her to its College of Fellows in 2021.

  5. March 2025

    Introducing xvr

    In March 2025, she coauthors xvr, a self-supervised framework that combines patient-specific neural networks with gradient-based optimization for 2D/3D registration.

  6. September 2025

    Fetal MRI modeling

    In September 2025, she is a senior author of Fetal SMPL, a machine-learning model that represents fetal shape and movement from MRI. The system trains on 20,000 MRI volumes to estimate a fetus’s location and size.

  7. September 2026

    X-ray volume registration

    In September 2026, she is co-senior author of an xvr paper that matches intraoperative X-rays with preoperative 3D medical scans.

  8. As of October 2026

    Professor and lab leader

    As of October 2026, she is the Sunlin and Priscilla Chou Professor of EECS, a principal investigator in CSAIL, and leader of the Medical Vision Group.

Sources and credits

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  1. The quantifier | MIT News news.mit.edu. Checked 15 October 2026.
  2. Polina Golland | Institute for Medical Engineering & Science imes.mit.edu. Checked 15 October 2026.
  3. Faculty promotions: Chlipala, Golland, Torralba & Vaikuntanathan | MIT CSAIL csail.mit.edu. Checked 15 October 2026.
  4. Polina Golland | CSAIL Alliances cap.csail.mit.edu. Checked 15 October 2026.
  5. 2021 AIMBE Fellows | AIMBE aimbe.org. Checked 15 October 2026.
  6. Rapid patient-specific neural networks for intraoperative X-ray to volume registration | arXiv arxiv.org. Checked 15 October 2026.
  7. Machine-learning tool gives doctors a more detailed 3D picture of fetal health | MIT News news.mit.edu. Checked 15 October 2026.
  8. New AI technique could make minimally invasive surgeries safer and more precise | MIT CSAIL csail.mit.edu. Checked 15 October 2026.