Buvat received her PhD in particle and nuclear physics from Paris-Sud University, Orsay, France, in 1992 and has since focused on applications of nuclear physics to medical imaging. She is currently the head of the In Vivo Molecular Imaging Research Lab at the Service Hospitalier Frédéric Joliot PET Center in Orsay. Since 2005, she has been the spokesperson of the worldwide OpenGATE collaboration developing the GATE Monte Carlo simulation tool dedicated to emission and transmission tomography and radiotherapy applications.

Peter E. Valk, MD, Memorial Award


Richard L. Wahl, MD, received the Peter E. Valk, MD, Memorial Award, which was created to honor the memory of Peter E. Valk, MD, a pioneer in the establishment of PET as an important clinical study. Wahl was recognized for his contributions to the advancement of PET, including PET/CT, PET/MRI and other emerging technologies, as well as his dedication to the SNMMI PET Center of Excellence.

Wahl is Elizabeth Mallinckrodt Professor of Radiology, chairman of the Department of Radiology, and director of the Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Mo. His research played an important role in the development of radioimmunotherapy for non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Wahl has also been a leader in the use of PET scans to diagnose a broad array of human cancers and other diseases, and he is at the forefront of efforts to combine quantitative data from PET scans with computerized tomography (CT) to form “fusion” images that can help physicians more precisely diagnose and characterize cancers. He holds 18 patents in radiology and has published more than 400 peer-reviewed scientific manuscripts. He is the primary author of several textbooks, including Principles and Practice of PET and PET/CT.

Kuhl-Lassen Lecture Award

Robert B. Innis, MD, PhD, received the Kuhl-Lassen Lecture Award, presented by the SNMMI Brain Imaging Council. The award recognizes a scientist who has made outstanding contributions and whose research in and service to the discipline of functional brain imaging is of the highest caliber. Innis gave the lecture entitled, “PET of Human Brain Can Monitor Neuroinflammation and cAMP Signaling: Applications to Alzheimer's Disease and Depression.”

Innis has been chief of the Molecular Imaging Branch at the National Institute of Mental Health in Bethesda, Md., since 2001. His laboratory develops and uses PET radioligands to study pathophysiology in several neuropsychiatric disorders. In addition to traditional receptor targets, he uses radiolabeled probes for in vivo imaging of intracellular signal transduction, gene expression, and a mitochondrial protein that is a marker for inflammatory cells. Innis earned his BS in molecular biophysics and biochemistry from Yale College and his MD, as well as his PhD in pharmacology, from Johns Hopkins School of Medicine.

Association Viewpoints Homepage