A recent graduate of the University at Buffalo’s Neuroscience program, Alexander Bartnik, PhD. is a member of BNAC’s leadership team, serving as IT Unit Director in addition to his involvement in BNAC’s Neuroinformatics Development Lab and Core Lab. His expertise lie in neuroinformatics and the development of novel tools to facilitate the translation of neuroimaging research into clinical practice.

Dr. Bartnik began working with BNAC as an undergraduate student in 2017 under Michael Dwyer, PhD., BNAC’s Deputy Director and Neuroinformatics Director. Initially focusing on the use of functional MRI (fMRI) to investigate the role of brain activity and cognition in multiple sclerosis under the guidance of Tom Fuchs, MD, PhD., Dr. Bartnik quickly developed a passion for computational research. This work culminated in a Masters of Science at the University at Buffalo and Dr. Bartnik’s first publication, “Functional alteration due to structural damage is network dependent: insight from multiple sclerosis ” in Cerebral Cortex.

Dr. Bartnik then began his doctoral work in Neuroscienceon the development of a fully automated of a fully automated neuroinformatics platform to help clinical researchers apply neuroimaging methods and data to translational research for use throughout the University at Buffalo’s Center for Biomedical Imaging (CBI). During his doctoral degree, Dr. Bartnik produced several tools to aid in the integration of neuroimaging with biomedical research, including “An Automated Tool to Classify and Transform Unstructured MRI Data into BIDS Datasets,” published in Neuroinformatics. Additionally, Dr. Bartnik’s work on the MRI Ontology, which is used to drive full automation of the CBI neuroinformatics platform, has been integrated into gold-standard ontologies used by the National Institute of Health (NIH) and globally for harmonizing biomedical research data. Dr. Bartnik has presented his work on the MRI Ontology to NIH panels and biomedical ontology conferences, and is always eager for collaboration to help foster the use of neuroimaging data to answer new scientific questions.

Not just a technically savvy researcher, Dr. Bartnik has also used his proficiency with computer systems to help improve BNAC’s information security throughout his tenure with BNAC. At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr. Bartnik was instrumental in helping BNAC adapt to a rapidly changing virtual landscape, helping to secure BNAC’s Core Lab as the world shifted to working remotely. With Dr. Bartnik’s help, the IT Unit was able to ensure BNAC’s operations continued to function smoothly throughout the pandemic and transition to hybrid work models, and even facilitated collaborations with global partners at the highest standards of IT security. Shortly after becoming the IT Unit Director, Dr. Bartnik used these experiences to lead BNAC to its ISO 27001k Certification, a globally recognized standard given to organizations who maintain and continually improve information security management systems. Under Dr. Bartnik’s leadership, BNAC is able to assure research participants, collaborators, industry partners, and funding agencies that BNAC handles their data with the highest level of security.

Dr. Bartnik has applied what he has done in BNAC’s IT Unit to create a similar environment at home. When not playing with computers, he also enjoys reading fantasy novels, karaoke, and playing guitar in several genres including classical, jazz, metal, and rock.