David Edmund Kuhl (October 27, 1929 in

St. Louis, Missouri St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi River, Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the Greater St. Louis, ...

– May 28, 2017 in

Ann Arbor, Michigan Ann Arbor is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan and the county seat of Washtenaw County, Michigan, Washtenaw County. The 2020 United States census, 2020 census recorded its population to be 123,851. It is the principal city of the Ann Arbor ...

) was an

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

scientist specializing in

nuclear medicine Nuclear medicine or nucleology is a medical specialty involving the application of radioactive substances in the diagnosis and treatment of disease. Nuclear imaging, in a sense, is "radiology done inside out" because it records radiation emitting ...

. He was well known for his pioneering work in

positron emission tomography Positron emission tomography (PET) is a functional imaging technique that uses radioactive substances known as radiotracers to visualize and measure changes in Metabolism, metabolic processes, and in other physiological activities including bl ...

. Dr. Kuhl served as the Chief of the Division of Nuclear Medicine at the

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

for 20 years and retired in June 2011.

Education and career

He obtained M.D.from University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine in 1955 and then completed his residency at Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania in 1962. During his time at Penn he developed a new method of tomographic imaging and constructed several tomographic instruments. These tomographic imaging techniques he invented were further developed in the 1970s and now called

or PET. He joined the University of Michigan Medical School faculty in 1986 and worked to develop the use of FDG metabolism scanning in human brains. During his time as Chief of the Division of Nuclear Medicine and Director of the Center for Positron Emission Tomography, the University of Michigan became one of the first US institutions to offer clinical diagnostic PET services. His discoveries and clinical translations helped lead to the routine clinical use of PET in neurology, cardiology and oncology in the US and worldwide.

Honors

* 1976 Nuclear Pioneer (awarded by the

Society of Nuclear Medicine The Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging (SNMMI), formerly the Society of Nuclear Medicine, is a nonprofit scientific and professional organization that promotes the science, technology and practical application of nuclear medicine a ...

) * 1981 Ernst Jung Prize * 2001 Kettering Prize * 2009

Japan Prize is awarded to people from all parts of the world whose "original and outstanding achievements in science and technology are recognized as having advanced the frontiers of knowledge and served the cause of peace and prosperity for mankind." The P ...

References

External links

Profile
at

University of Michigan Health System Michigan Medicine (University of Michigan Health System or UMHS before 2017) is the wholly owned academic medical center of the University of Michigan, a public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Michigan Medicine includes the Universi ...

* (Japan Prize)
Professorship at the University of Michigan Medical School Department of Radiology
ref> 2017 deaths 1929 births Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania alumni University of Michigan faculty American radiologists American nuclear medicine physicians Members of the National Academy of Medicine {{US-scientist-stub