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Andrea Seung Kim

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Andrea S. Kim is an independent biomedical visualization researcher specializing in synthetic medical image generation, procedural 3D modeling, and medical AR/VR (MXR) device evaluation. She received her M.S. in Biomedical Visualization from the University of Illinois Chicago and her B.A. from Northwestern University.

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As a research scientist at the FDA's Center for Devices and Radiological Health for seven years, she developed evaluation methodologies for MXR devices and served as a subject matter expert in color performance, converting colorimetric data into human perceptual analyses to support regulatory reviews of medical devices. Her publications span MXR device characterization, image quality and display performance assessment, and computational approaches to medical imaging AI training data.

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She is a recipient of the FDA Scientific Achievement Award from Commissioner Dr. Robert Califf (2023), and won Best in Show (Student Category) in the Serious Games and Virtual Environments Showcase at the 2019 International Meeting on Simulation in Healthcare.​ Her earlier work includes over three years of clinical research and regulatory training in cardiothoracic surgery at Northwestern Memorial Hospital and the Bluhm Cardiovascular Institute, where she held national CCRC certification from the Association of Clinical Research Professionals. She continues to accept medical illustration commissions. Her illustrations have appeared in The Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery (2015), Northwestern Public Health Review (2017), the Handbook of Clinical Neurology, Vol. 207 (Elsevier, 2025), as well as throughout her own published research.

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Tech Showcase:​

  1. Automating 3D Model Generation with Code (Friday, July 31, 2026). Association of Medical Illustrators 2026 Annual Conference - Tech Showcase, Madison, WI. Session handout, code examples, and further resources are freely available.

→ View session materials on GitHub

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Awards:

  1. FDA Scientific Achievement Award - Chief Scientist Publication Award for Significant Outreach (2023, November). Presented by Robert M. Califf, M.D., Commissioner of Food and Drugs, U.S. Food & Drug Administration, Silver Spring, MD.

  2. Office of Science and Engineering Laboratories Quarterly Recognition Award (2020, February). Presented by Edward Margerrison, Ph.D., Director of Office of Science and Engineering Laboratories, Center for Devices and Radiological Health, U.S. Food & Drug Administration, Silver Spring, MD.

  3. 1st Place in Serious Games & Virtual Environments, Best in Show Award for Student Category (2019, January). “Virtual reality training simulation for learning hands and forearm anatomy.” IMSH 2019 SimVentors Showcase, Presented by the Society for Simulation in Healthcare (SSH), San Antonio, TX.

  4. Chancellor’s Student Service and Leadership Award (2018, April). 46th Annual Awards, Presented by Chancellor Amiridis, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL.

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Publications:​

  1. Elena Sizikova, Niloufar Saharkhiz, Andrea S. Kim, Miguel Lago, Jana G. Delfino, Aldo Badano (2026). "Synthetic skin image generation using a physics-based, object-to-image computational pipeline." International Journal of Computer Assisted Radiology and Surgery, 21(4), pp. 703-710. read here

  2. Andrea S. Kim*, Niloufar Saharkhiz*, Elena Sizikova*, Miguel Lago, Berkman Sahiner, Jana G. Delfino, Aldo Badano (2024). "S-SYNTH: Knowledge-Based, Synthetic Generation of Skin Images." Medical Image Computing and Computer Assisted Intervention - MICCAI 2024. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, volume 15003. Springer, Cham. *Kim, Saharkhiz, and Sizikova contributed equally. read here

  3. Ellenor J. Brown, Kyoko Fujimoto, Bennett Blumenkopf, Andrea S. Kim, Kimberly L. Kontson, and Heather L. Benz. (2023). "Usability Assessments for Augmented Reality Head-Mounted Displays in Open Surgery and Interventional Procedures: A Systematic Review" Multimodal Technologies and Interaction 7, no. 5: 49. read here

  4. Andrea S. Kim, Aunnasha Sengupta, Aldo Badano (2023). "Automated animation pipeline for visualizing in silico tumor growth models." SPIE Medical Imaging 2023: Physics of Medical Imaging, 12463, pp. 862-866.

  5. Chumin Zhao, Andrea S. Kim, Ryan Beams, Aldo Badano (2022). "Spatiotemporal image quality of virtual reality head mounted displays" Scientific Reports volume 12, 20235. read here

  6. Ryan Beams, Ellenor Brown, Wei-Chung Cheng, Janell S. Joyner, Andrea S. Kim, Kimberly Kontson, Aldo Badano (2022). "Evaluation Challenges for the Application of Extended Reality Devices in Medicine." Journal of Digital Imaging 35 (5), 1409-1418. read here

  7. Andrea S. Kim, Wei-Chung Cheng, Ryan Beams, Aldo Badano (2021). “Spatiotemporal characteristics of medical extended-reality systems.” SPIE Medical Imaging 2021: Image Perception, Observer Performance, and Technology Assessment, 11599-06.

  8. Andrea S. Kim, Wei-Chung Cheng, Ryan Beams, Aldo Badano (2020). “Color Rendering in Medical Extended-Reality Applications.” Journal of Digital Imaging, pp. 1-11. read here

  9. Ryan Beams, Brendan Collins, Andrea S. Kim, Aldo Badano (2020). "Angular Dependence of the Spatial Resolution in Virtual Reality Displays." 2020 IEEE Conference on Virtual Reality and 3D User Interfaces (VR), 836-841.

  10. Ryan Beams, Andrea S. Kim, Aldo Badano (2020). “Eyebox centering using chromatic aberrations of virtual reality head-mounted displays." Optical Architectures for Displays and Sensing in Augmented, Virtual, and Mixed Reality (AR, VR, MR). International Society for Optics and Photonics, volume 11310 p. 1131009.

  11. Ryan Beams, Andrea S. Kim, Aldo Badano (2019). “Measurement of transverse chromatic aberrations in virtual reality headsets.” Frontiers in Optics + Laser Science APS/DLS, pp. JW3A-88. OSA Technical Digest (Optical Society of America).

  12. Ryan Beams, Andrea S. Kim, Aldo Badano (2019. “Transverse chromatic aberration in virtual reality head-mounted displays.” Optics Express, 27(18), pp. 24877-24884.

  13. Ryan Beams, Andrea S. Kim, Wei-Chung Cheng, Aldo Badano (2019). “38-1: Transverse chromatic aberrations in virtual reality devices.” SID Symposium Digest of Technical Papers, 50(1), pp.524-526.

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Poster Presentations:

  1. Andrea S. Kim, Ryan Beams, Ellenor Brown, Wei-Chung Cheng, Kyoko Fujimoto, Janell Joyner, Kimberly Kontson, Paul Lemaillet, Trent Robertson, and Aldo Badano (2020, March). "Medical Extended Reality (MXR) Research at the U.S. Food & Drug Administration." Poster Session presented at the 2020 FDA Public Workshop - Medical Extended Reality: Toward Best Evaluation Practices for Virtual and Augmented Reality in Medicine, Silver Spring, M.D.

  2. Ryan Beams, Andrea S. Kim, Wei-Chung Cheng, Aldo Badano (2019, September). “Display performance characterization of virtual and augmented reality devices for medicine.” Poster Session presented at the 2019 FDA Science Forum, Silver Spring, M.D.

  3. Andrea S. Kim, Ryan Beams, Wei-Chung Cheng, Aldo Badano (2019, June). “Colour effects in the rendering of mixed-reality scenes.” Poster Session presented at the CIE 2019 29th Quadrennial Session, Washington, D.C.

  4. Andrea S. Kim (2017, August). "Heart medicine inspired by Saw-Scaled Viper (Echis carinatus)." Poster Session Presented at the the Association of Medical Illustrators 2017 Annual Conference, Austin, T.X.

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Talks:

  1. Andrea S. Kim (2025, July) Speaker, Plenary Talk, "Using a Knowledge-Based Framework for Generating More Equitable AI Training Data in Medical Imaging." Association of Medical Illustrators 2025 Annual Conference, Grand Rapids, M.I.

  2. Andrea S. Kim (2021, July). "MXR Applications - Evaluation Challenges and Research at FDA" Seminar presented at the 2021 FDA Fellows Association Summer Seminar Series, Silver Spring, M.D.

  3. Andrea S. Kim, Wei-Chung Cheng, Ryan Beams, Aldo Badano (2021, February) "Spatiotemporal Characteristics of Medical Extended-Reality Systems." SPIE Medical Imaging Conference 2021, Virtual.

  4. Andrea S. Kim (2020, September) Speaker, Plenary Talk, "Medical AR/VR Applications: Evaluation Challenges and Research at FDA." Association of Medical Illustrators 2020 Annual Conference, Virtual.

  5. Andrea S. Kim (2020, August) Invited Panelist, "The Future of Spatial Computing in Healthcare." MedVR VR & AR Symposium and Hackathon in Healthcare, Featured Online Talk. (YouTube link to the recording)

  6. Andrea S. Kim (2020, August). "Performance characterization of medical extended reality head-mounted displays." Seminar presented at the 2020 FDA Fellows Association Seminar Series, Silver Spring, M.D.

  7. Andrea S. Kim (2019, July). “Augmented & Virtual Reality in Medicine.” Seminar presented at the 2019 FDA Fellows Association Summer Seminar Series, Silver Spring, M.D.

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© 2026 Andrea Seung Kim

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