Alavi achievements recognized with de Hevesy Award.

with de Hevesy Award A bass Alavi, MD, Professor of Radiology and Chief of the Division of Nuclear Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania Medical Center (Philadelphia), was named as the recipient of the 2004 Georg Charles de Hevesy Nuclear Medicine Pioneer Award. The award was presented on June 20 during the first plenary session at the SNM annual meeting in Philadelphia. Alavi was chosen by Henry Royal, MD, then president of the SNM, for pioneering work that has contributed to the advancement of nuclear medicine world wide. Each year the SNM presents the de Hevesy award to an individual or individuals for outstanding contributions to the field of nuclear medicine. de Hevesy, widely recognized as one of the originators of the field of nuclear medicine, was the author of several important books and papers on radiochemistry and the recipient of the 1943 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his investigation of the absorption, distribution, metabolism, and elimination of radioactive compounds in the human body. This research laid the foundation of nuclear medicine as a tool for diagnosis and therapy. “Dr. Alavi’s crowning achievement has been his pioneering work in PET,” said Royal in presenting the award. “We speak of molecular imaging, and PET specifically, as ‘the future,’ but he had the foresight to study PET images as early as the 1970s. If you examine nuclear medicine you will find his name. It is with great pleasure that we extend our congratulations to Dr. Alavi on being awarded this prestigious honor.” Alavi was born in Tabriz, Iran. The example of his paternal grandfather, who practiced herbal medicine, inspired him to enter the medical profession. The first in his family to attend college, Alavi graduated from the University of Tehran Medical School in 1964. He performed his required military service as a member of the Shah’s National Health Corps. As the only physician for the people of a small mountain village, he often traveled on horseback to care for illnesses that ranged from measles to anthrax. In 1966, Alavi arrived in the United States, where he served an internship and residency in medicine at Philadelphia hospitals, earned a hematology/oncology fellowship at Penn, and completed a 1-year residency in radiology at Harvard University. He joined the Penn School of Medicine in 1971 as a research fellow in nuclear medicine and found his true professional calling while training in nuclear medicine under David Kuhl, MD, who introduced him to SPECT and PET and became a lifelong inspiration and friend. Today Alavi is an internationally recognized expert in advanced imaging techniques and the clinical applications of PET imaging for the detection of cancer and other disorders, including dementia, seizures, cardiovascular disease, and infection. In nuclear medicine, he has enthusiastically pursued interests and activities into areas as diverse as meditation, acupuncture, gene therapy, and angiogenesis, perhaps reflecting his broad experiences early in his medical career in Iran. He has introduced novel techniques that have changed the face of nuclear medicine, ranging from basic clinical procedures to others involving sophisticated technologies, such as tomography. He has been a pioneer in transitioning PET from research into clinical applications. Along with Kuhl and Dr. Marcus Reivich, he was the first to perform brain tomography and whole-body imaging with 18F-FDG in patients in the early 1970s. He has maintained a strong commitment to education and trained hundreds of students and physicians from the United States and abroad. At the SNM meeting in Philadelphia, Alavi’s group was ubiquitous, participating in more than 60 scientific presentations and poster sessions. “This is all due to the efforts of my wonderful students who work in our group,” he explained. “I am very proud of the contributions of these young talents.” He is in constant demand as a speaker and has delivered invited lectures in more than 50 countries. (Continued on page 52N) Jane and Abass Alavi with the Award winner’s mother at the Awards ceremony. N E W S L I N E