Calendar Icon Nov 17, 2022 Person Bust Icon By Emily Case
Two BSE alumni were recognized with career awards at the Biological Systems Engineering fall banquet on Nov. 17. Pengfei Song received the Early Career Award and Brian Magnusson received the Mid-Career Award.
The career awards were established in 2021 to recognize distinguished alumni. The department is pleased to shine a light on the accomplishments of this year’s recipients, said David Jones, BSE Department Head.
“We are pleased to provide very well-deserved recognition to two talented alumni from our department,” Jones said. “Pengfei and Brian are both making a tremendous impact in their respective fields.”
Early Career Award Winner 2022: Dr. Pengfei Song
Song is an Assistant Professor of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Department of Bioengineering, and Carle Illinois College of Medicine at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. He is a full-time faculty member at the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology.
Before joining Illinois, Song obtained his PhD and conducted his postdoctoral training under the supervision of Drs. James Greenleaf and Shigao Chen at Mayo Clinic. He completed his master’s research with BSE Professor Greg Bashford. Song credits Bashford with introducing him to ultrasound imaging and inspiring him to pursue a career in the field.
His research interests include ultrafast ultrasound imaging, super-resolution ultrasound, deep learning, and ultrasound elastography. Song has published over 80 peer-reviewed journal papers. He holds several patents that have been licensed and commercialized by major ultrasound companies and used worldwide in the clinic.
He is an elected Fellow of the American Institute of Ultrasound in Medicine (AIUM), a Senior Member of the National Academy of Inventors, a Senior Member of IEEE, and a Full Member of the Acoustical Society of America (ASA).
Song’s main contributions to the field of biological systems engineering concentrate on the domain of biomedical imaging, specifically biomedical ultrasound imaging. He has developed many novel diagnostic ultrasound imaging technologies for imaging tissue viscoelasticity and microcirculation. Several ultrasound imaging technologies developed by Song have been licensed, commercialized, and installed on top-tier ultrasound systems that are widely used around the world. Recently Song and his lab have been pushing the boundaries of spatial imaging resolution with ultrasound.
Mid-Career Award Winner 2022: Brian Magnusson
Magnusson has served as Vice President of the Americas region of Lindsay Corporation since May 2019. In this role, he is responsible for the P&L management of Lindsay's irrigation business across North and South America. Prior to this role, Magnusson served as VP, Technology & Innovation from June 2018 with product and engineering responsibility for FieldNET and Elecsys brand solutions.
He joined Lindsay in 2015 as VP, Technology managing the FieldNET and VRI businesses. Starting in 2016, he also managed Global Marketing and Irrigation Product Management ad interim for 18 months.
Prior to Lindsay, Magnusson served as Global Director, Tractor Portfolio Management at CNH Industrial for over three years with responsibility for the Case IH, New Holland, and Steyr brands of agricultural tractors and utility vehicles. Prior to CNH Industrial, he spent four years at Bain & Company, a leading global management consulting firm, advising the executive teams at various Fortune 500 corporations on strategic growth challenges.
Strong roots in agriculture formed the foundation of his career. Magnusson grew up on a row crop and livestock farming operation in northeast Nebraska and earned an undergraduate degree in Agricultural Engineering from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. He began his career as a mechanical engineer at Burns & McDonnell, a global engineering firm, and later became a project manager and licensed Professional Engineer while there. Following his tenure at Burns & McDonnell, Magnusson attended the Harvard Business School, where he received a Master of Business Administration degree in 2008.
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The Early and Mid-Career Awards are for alumni of the University of Nebraska’s Department of Biological Systems Engineering who have excelled and provided valuable leadership in their profession. Candidates should have less than 10 years of professional working experience, exclusive of graduate/professional school for the early career award, and between 10 and 20 years of experience for the mid-career award.
Learn more about the BSE alumni awards: https://bse.unl.edu/alumni-awards