Technical University of Munich, Munich Germany
Doctor of Natural Sciences (Dr. rer. nat) - PhD in Computer Science
Oct 2018 - Present
Focus on deep learning methods geared towards spectral modeling and data processing for MR Spectroscopy. This work has focused on developing and improving deep learning techniques as well as improving how we simulate MRS data for training DL models.
Skills: Python; PyTorch; Matlab; Deep Learning; Computer Science; MRI; MRS; Project Management
Common European Masters Course in Biomedical Engineering (CEMACUBE)
Erasmus Mundus Masters Program
Oct 2014 - Oct 2016
Czech Technical University in Prague, Prague, Czech Republic
Master of Science in Biomedical Engineering (Ing.)
Sep 2015 - Oct 2016
Specialized in Medical Imaging Instrumentation
Skills: Matlab; Medical Imaging; Medical Imaging Physics; MRI
RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany
Oct 2014 - Sep 2015
Visiting Student
Saint Louis University, St. Louis, USA
Bachelor of Science in Biomedical Engineering
Minor in Spanish (Applied LInguistics)
Minor in Italian Studies
Aug 2009 - Dec 2014
Skills: Tissue Engineering; Cell Culture; Microscopy; Cell Studies; Materials Testing
Saint Louis University Madrid, Madrid, Spain
Jan 2011 - May 2011
Semester Abroad
Deep Learning
Computer Vision
DL Multivariate Regression
MRI
MR Spectroscopy (MRS)
MRS Modeling and Simulation
Medical Imaging
Spectral Modeling / Spectral Fitting
Denoising
Python (incl. NumPy and SciPy)
PyTorch
Matlab
Git
Research Assistant. Garching bei München, Bavaria, Germany
Technical University of Munich - Munich Institute for Biomedical Engineering (MIBE).
Mar 2024 - present
United Congregations Metro-East. Southern IL, USA
Executive Board Member. Nov 2017 - Aug 2018 (10 months).
Local Cluster Leader. Nov 2017 - Aug 2018 (10 months).
O'Fallon Township High School. O'Fallon, IL USA
Mar 2017 - May 2018 (1yr 3 months).
Chemistry Teacher. Jan 2018 - May 2018 (5 months).
Substitute Teacher. Mar 2017 - May 2018 (1yr 3 months).
Italian Tutor. St. Louis, MO USA
Saint Louis University - Department of Modern and Classical Languages.
Jan 2014 - May 2014 (5 months).
Code and Data Sharing Committee of the ISMRM Spectroscopy Study Group. Leadership Team. 2022-2024.
Visiting Scholar at University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). (2 months) 2021.
IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBS) Student Chapter Munich. Vice-Chair. 2020-2021.
Doctoral Representative. Graduate Center for Bioengineering. Technical University of Munich. 2019-2021.
2025. Lecture on "Let’s GIT started with magnetizing collaborative hacking for science (GitHub/GitLAB tutorial)". MRS x MRathon 2025: Surfing the waves of reproducible MRI research.
2024. Oral presentation on "Denoising for Physical Fidelity: Feature Enhancement via Spatial Conditioning on Multi-Coil Transients Improves Metabolite Quantification of Noisy Spectra". ISMRM Workshop 2024 - MR Spectroscopy: Frontiers in Molecular & Metabolic Imaging. Boston, MA USA.
2023. Lecture on "Coding Best Practices for Shared Projects". MRS Hackathon (Toronto, CA).
2022. Poster presentation on "MRS-Sim: Open-Source Framework for Simulating In Vivo-like Magnetic Resonance Spectra". ISMRM-endorsed MRS Spectroscopy Workshop 2022 in Lausanne. Lausanne, CH.
2018. DAAD Doctoral Fellowship "Research Grants - Doctoral Programmes in Germany". (2018-2022)
(Under Review) LaMaster, J. T., Gudmundson, A. T., MRS Synthetic Data Working Group, and Kaiser, A. (2026). Synthetic Data in MR Spectroscopy: Current Practices, Applications, and Considerations. NMR in Biomedicine. Preprint: https://arxiv.org/abs/2602.23463
LaMaster, J. T., Igwe, K. C., Merkofer, J. P. (2026). Augmentrum: A Data Augmentation Package for MR Spectroscopy. Proceedings of International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine. Scientific Meeting and Exhibition/Proceedings of the International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine, Scientific Meeting and Exhibition. Abstract # 05685
Soher, B. J., LaMaster, J., Merkofer, J. P., Strasser, B., van de Sande, D., & Ma, C. (2025). Preliminary Results from the 2024 MRSI Data Processing and Quantification Challenge. Proceedings of the International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine. Scientific Meeting and Exhibition/Proceedings of the International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine, Scientific Meeting and Exhibition. https://doi.org/10.58530/2025/4833
Swanberg, K., Zöllner, H., LaMaster, J., Kaiser, A., Near, J., Fleischer, C., Oeltzschner, G., & Juchem, C. (2024). 1H-MRS VERI: The Proton Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy Validation Effort Resource Initiative. Proceedings of International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine. Scientific Meeting and Exhibition/Proceedings of the International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine, Scientific Meeting and Exhibition. https://doi.org/10.58530/2024/2985
Zöllner, H., Swanberg, K., LaMaster, J., Kaiser, A., Near, J., Fleischer, C., Soher, B., Clarke, W., & Oeltzschner, G. (2023). Towards a standardized file format for basis spectra and fitting results for linear-combination modeling. Proceedings of International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine. Scientific Meeting and Exhibition/Proceedings of the International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine, Scientific Meeting and Exhibition. https://doi.org/10.58530/2023/5259
Kofler, F., Ezhov, I., Fidon, L., Horvath, I., de la Rosa, E., LaMaster, J., Li, H., Finck, T., Shit, S., Paetzold, J., Bakas, S., Piraud, M., Kirschke, J., Vercauteren, T., Zimmer, C., Wiestler, B., & Menze, B. (2023). Deep quality estimation: Creating surrogate models for human quality ratings. Brainlesion: Glioma, Multiple Sclerosis, Stroke and Traumatic Brain Injuries, 3–13. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-33842-7_1
Getting started with MRS: a digital collection of community-sourced educational materials. First edition. Edited by Fleischer, C., Oeltzschner, G., LaMaster, J. et al. MRSHub: United States, 2022. https://mrshub.github.io/mre-educational-book/
Chapter 4 MRS and NMR Glossary; Getting started with MRS: a digital collection of community-sourced educational materials. First edition. Authored by LaMaster, J. et al. MRSHub: United States, 2022. https://mrshub.github.io/mre-educational-book/
LaMaster, J., Das, D., Kofler, F., Crane, J., Li, Y., Lasser, T., Menze, B. (Pending). Improving the Precision of CNNs for Magnetic Resonance Spectral Modeling.
Hu, X., Ren, W., LaMaster, J., Cao, X., Li, X., Li, Z., Menze, B.H., & Liu, W. (2020). Face Super-Resolution Guided by 3D Facial Priors. Computer Vision - ECCV 2020, 763-780. https://doi.org/10.1007.978-3-030-58548-8_44