Biography

Islem Rekik is the Director of the Brain And SIgnal Research and Analysis (BASIRA) laboratory and an Associate Professor at Imperial College London (Innovation Hub I-X). She is the awardee of two prestigious international research fellowships (EU Marie Curie Fellowship & TUBITAK 2232). In 2025, she was the recipient of the prestigious Tunisian AI Award from the Tunisian AI Society (𝗧Λ𝗜𝗦), recognizing Top AI Pioneers and was featured in the I-X news as well as the Realites magazine. Together with BASIRA members, she conducted more than 100 cutting-edge research projects cross-pollinating AI and healthcare —with a sharp focus on brain imaging and network neuroscience. UG and PG Students under her supervision received 24 highly competitive academic honors, grants and awards. She is also a co/chair/organizer of more than 34 international first-class conferences/workshops/competitions (e.g., Affordable AI 2021-22, Predictive AI 2018-2025, Machine Learning in Medical Imaging 2021-25, WILL competition 2021-23). She delivered 40+ invited keynotes, talks, seminars and lectures including prestigious international conferences (MICCAI, CVPR, ISBI, Wellcome trust). She is a member of the organizing committee of MICCAI 2023 (Vancouver), 2024 (Marrakesh) and South-Korea (2025). She will serve as the General Co-Chair of MICCAI 2026 in Abu Dhabi. In addition to her 160+ peer-reviewed publications in top journals including IEEE TPAMI (IF: 20.8) and BMJ (IF: 93), she is a strong advocate of equity, diversity and inclusiveness in AI and research. She is the former President of the Women in MICCAI (WiM), and the co-founder (and now former President) of the international RISE Network to Reinforce Inclusiveness & diverSity and Empower minority researchers in Low-Middle Income Countries (LMIC).