Lixin Ma received the B.S. and M.S. degrees in physics from Nankai University, Tianjin, China, in 1987 and 1990, respectively, and the Ph.D. degree in chemistry from the University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark, in 2000. From 1990 to 1995, she was with the Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) Division of Radiology, Second Teaching Hospital, Tianjin Medical University, Tianjin. She was a Postdoctoral Associate with the University of Copenhagen from 2000 to 2001, and with Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, USA, from 2002 to 2003. Since 2004, she has been a Faculty Member with the University of Missouri, Columbia, MO, USA, and a Research Scientist with the Biomolecular Imaging Center, Harry S. Truman Memorial Veterans Hospital, Columbia. She became a Tenure-Track Assistant Professor in 2006 and has been a Tenured Associate Professor with the School of Medicine Department of Radiology since 2013 and an Adjunct Associate Professor with the Department of Physics and Astronomy since 2018. She has more than 70 peer-reviewed journal articles. Her research interests include development of molecular imaging probes and nanomaterials for MRI, photoacoustic, and photothermal applications in cancer diagnostics and therapeutics, and advanced imaging technology for oncology and cardiology applications. Prof. Ma received the New Investigator Award from the Department of Defense in 2009, the Frontiers in Biomolecular NMR Keystone Travel Scholarship in 2001, the European Molecular Biology Organization Scholarship for Summer School “Multidimensional NMR in Structural Biology” in 1997, and the Faculty of Science Graduate Scholarship, University of Copenhagen, Denmark, from 1997 to 2000.