Paul M. Parizel graduated summa cum laude as a medical doctor (M.D.) from the Faculty of Medicine, University of Antwerp, Belgium, in 1982. He became a board-certified radiologist in Belgium, and completed a clinical fellowship in neuroradiology at Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School (Prof. Dr. Juan M. Taveras), and at Hôpital Erasme, University of Brussels (Prof. Dr. Danielle Balériaux). He developed the neuroradiology division at Antwerp University Hospital.

In 1994, he obtained a Ph.D. degree with a doctoral dissertation entitled “The influence of field strength on magnetic resonance imaging  (a comparative study in physicochemical phantoms, isolated brain specimens and clinical applications).” He was the recipient of a 3-year ‘Fundamental Clinical Research’ grant from the “Foundation for Scientific Research” in Belgium, which allowed him to continue his research, with a focus on traumatic brain injury.

From 2003 until 2019, he served as Chair of the Department of Radiology at the Antwerp University Hospital, and tenured full Professor of Radiology in the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, University of Antwerp.  He was also a member of the Board of Trustees of the University of Antwerp, representing the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences.

Prof. Parizel has authored or co-authored well over 400 peer-reviewed scientific papers (listed in PubMed) and more than 40 book chapters. His h-index is 42 (Web of Science), 59 (Google Scholar) or 50 (ResearchGate). He is editor and co-editor of several books, including “Clinical MR Imaging, a practical approach” (Reimer P, Parizel PM, Meaney JFM, Stichnoth F-A, Eds.) and “Spinal Imaging” (Van Goethem J, van den Hauwe L, Parizel PM, Eds.). His main fields of interest are neuroradiology and MRI, with a focus on integrating scientific research with patient-oriented clinical applications. He has presented invited lectures in many international scientific meetings and courses. He also developed a keen interest in Artificial Intelligence applications in radiology, as well as in management and integrated healthcare enterprise (IHE), for radiology departments and hospital-wide.

Prof. Parizel was successful in obtaining national and international funding (Framework Protocol 7, or FP-7, through European Union's Research and Innovation funding programme, National Institute for Science and Research in Belgium, B-Q minded, ERANET, industry grants). He was the recipient of several international awards, including the prize of the European Society of Neuroradiology, ECR best presentation award, CompuRAD Exhibition Award. National awards include the Award of the Belgian Government, Kodak Grant of the Royal Belgian Society of Radiology, and the “Astra Foundation Chair” for Lectures in Medicine. In 2014 he presented the Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen Honorary Lecture during the European Congress of Radiology (ECR 2014) in Vienna. In 2017, he was the President of the European Congress of Radiology ECR 2017.

Prof. Parizel is an active member of many scientific societies and organizations. He was President of the Royal Belgian Radiological Society (RBRS) from 1999 to 2000, chairman of the Scientific Program Committee of the 2003 ESMRMB meeting in Rotterdam, and chairman of the Postgraduate Educational Course Programme for ECR 2011 in Vienna. From 2010 to 2012, he served as President of the European Society of Neuroradiology (ESNR). From March 2016until March 2017 he was the President, and, from  March 2017 until March 2018 the Chairperson of the Board of Directors of the European Society of Radiology (ESR), which is the largest radiological society in the world, with more than 120,000 members.

Prof. Parizel is an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Australian and New-Zealand College of Radiology (2002), honorary member of the Serbian Society of Neuroradiology (2012), honorary and founding member of Russian National Society of Neuroradiology (2012). He was also awarded Honorary Membership of the Societatea de Radiologie si Imagistica Medicala din Romania (2015), the Sociedad Española de Radiología Médica (2016), the European Society of Neuroradiology (2016), the Société Française de Radiologie (2016), the Israel Radiological Association (2016), the Hellenic Radiological Society (2016). In 2017 he became honorary member of the American Society of Neuroradiology (ASNR), the Iranian Society of Radiology, the Société Algérienne de Radiologie et d’Imagerie Médicale (SARIM). In 2018 the Swiss Society of Radiology (SSR) awarded him the prestigious “Schinz Medal” and he became an Honorary Member of the Sociedad Cubana de Imagenologia (SCI), the Societá Italiana di Radiologia Medica (SIRM) and of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA). In 2019 he received Honorary Membership of the Sociedad Peruana de Radiologia (2019)

As of 2019, prof. Parizel has been appointed as the “David Hartley Chair of Radiology”, with an academic appointment at the University of Western Australia (UWA) and a part-time clinical appointment at Royal Perth Hospital (RPH).

Prof. Parizel has been a member of the Harvard Club of Belgium for almost thirty years.