Faculty Bios

FACULTY BIOS

BIOGRAPHIES DES CONFÉRENCIERS 

Iravani, Amir

Dr. Iravani is a nuclear medicine physician and an Associate Professor of Radiology at the Department of Radiology, University of Washington School of Medicine. He is the Theranostics Director at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center, overseeing the clinical and research efforts and leading multiple theranostic clinical trials. He finished his residency in Nuclear Medicine and Internal Medicine and became a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians in Australia. His fellowship focused on Molecular Imaging and Radionuclide Therapy at Peter MacCallum Cancer Center and joined the faculty afterward. Dr. Iravani has a broad clinical and research interest in molecular imaging and therapeutic nuclear medicine applications in a variety of tumors including neuroendocrine tumors, prostate cancer, and thyroid cancer. His research focuses on molecular imaging and therapeutic nuclear medicine applications in oncology and theranostics. Dr. Iravani has contributed to multiple practice-changing clinical trials and seminal papers in prostate cancer and neuroendocrine tumors including ProPSMA, LuPSMA and TheraP trials. He is currently a member of multiple national committees including the SNMMI Therapy Center of Excellence, Therapy Clinical Trial Network and National Cancer Institute NET working groups. 

Shammas, Amer

Dr. Amer Shammas has been Head of the Division of Nuclear Medicine, Department of Medical Imaging at the University of Toronto since 2015 and Program Director between 2014 and 2022.  Dr. Shammas has been leading the Division of Nuclear Medicine at The Hospital for Sick Children since July 2013.

Dr. Shammas completed his Nuclear Medicine residency program at Loyola University Medical Center in Illinois, U.S. in 2004. Subsequently, Dr. Shammas completed a PET fellowship at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center in Pennsylvania, USA in 2005, and fellowship in Paediatric Nuclear Medicine in the Department of Diagnostic Imaging at SickKids. He is a member of Radiological Society of North America, Canadian Society of Nuclear Medicine, and Society of Nuclear Medicine. Dr. Shammas’ main research interests are Paediatric Oncology and PET imaging.

Chow, Benjamin

Is a Professor of Medicine (Cardiology and Nuclear Medicine) and Radiology at the University of Ottawa. Dr. Chow is Clinical Cardiologist and Clinician Investigator at the University of Ottawa Heart Institute. He is the Co-Director of Cardiac Radiology.

Dr. Chow has more than 250 peer-reviewed publications. He sits on the Editorial Board of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology and participates in the planning of international scientific meetings (American Society of Nuclear Cardiology, International Congress Non-invasive Cardiac Imaging, International Congress of Cardiology). He has been recognized internationally for his contribution to science and clinical care and is a Fellow of the American College of Cardiology, Fellow of the European Society of Cardiology, Master of the Society of Cardiovascular Computed Tomography and Fellow of the American Society of Nuclear Cardiology.

Dr Chow has received numerous awards for his contributions to clinical care, research, and education, including: the University of Ottawa, Faculty of Medicine - Award of Distinction and Service, the University of Ottawa, Department of Medicine Mentorship Award, Continuing Medical Education (CME) Award, Clinical Science Investigator of the Year, Award for Research in Clinical Science, and the Young Professor Award.

Akincioglu, Cigdem

Originally from Turkiye, Dr. Akincioglu attended Gazi University in Ankara, where she completed both her MD and residency education. After finishing her residency, Dr. Akincioglu completed her fellowship in Cardiac Imaging at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, California. Dr. Akincioglu joined the team at Western in 2006 and was promoted to Associate Professor in 2010. She has board certifications in Nuclear Cardiology and Cardiovascular CT. Dr. Akincioglu has served as the Nuclear Medicine Residency Program Director at Western between 2010 and 2020. During her tenure, she has led the residency program through two successful Royal College accreditations, served at the Royal College Nuclear Medicine Specialty Committee for conceptualizing and implementation of Competency Based Medical Education. Dr. Akincioglu serves in executive committees of multiple professional societies in her field, including Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging (SNMMI) and American Society of Nuclear Cardiology (ASNC). She has been invited to give lectures both at national and international meetings. She is the president of the Eastern Great Lakes Chapter of SNMMI. She is also a Royal College Accreditation Surveyor. Dr. Akincioglu’s research interests are focused primarily on the improvement of cardiac imaging methods and protocols, correlative and hybrid/fusion imaging, and the use of novel tracers in myocardial imaging.

Gowdy, Claire

Dr Claire Gowdy Following residencies in paediatrics, radiology and nuclear medicine, Claire has found her niche in paediatric nuclear medicine at BC Children’s Hospital, Vancouver. Claire graduated medicine and speciality training in radiology in the UK followed by a paediatric radiology fellowship in Vancouver, Canada. Claire subsequently completed her nuclear medicine residency through the University of British Columbia and concurrently a Masters in Nuclear Medicine with Kings College London. After a second year of fellowship in PET/CT at The PET Centre in London, Claire is now developing her interest in functional imaging of childhood cancers at BCCH. Claire enjoys collaborative research activities within the BCCH Research Institute working closely with the Qurit Lab at BC Cancer Research Institute and is an active member of the Children’s Oncology Group.

Jefford, Cheryl

Dr Cheryl Jefford is a dual trained Radiologist and Nuclear Medicine physician. She completed her Radiology residency at Memorial University of Newfoundland and Labrador in 2003 and her residency in Nuclear Medicine at Western University in 2004. Since then, she has worked in St John’s, NL as both a radiologist and Nuclear Medicine physician where she does general radiology and nuclear medicine including FDG PET. She is the Nuclear Medicine lead in the ENT and breast tumor boards. She and her husband have 2 teenage boys who keep them very busy

Leamon,Christopher P.

Dr. Leamon is the Chief Scientific Officer at Fusion Pharmaceuticals where he leads the Discovery efforts for novel actinium-225 based cancer targeted therapeutics. Prior to Fusion he was the Executive Director of radioligand drug discovery at Novartis, Vice President of Research and Development at Endocyte, Inc. and a leader in discovery research at both GlaxoSmithKline, Inc. and Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. His research career has traversed the fields of targeted radioimaging, radiotherapy as well as chemo- and immunotherapy for the treatment of cancer and inflammatory diseases. Dr. Leamon received an ACS-certified B.S. degree in Chemistry from Baldwin Wallace University (1988) and a Ph.D. in Chemistry from Purdue University (1993).  He has spent over 30 years working in the drug delivery field and is also credited for conducting groundbreaking experiments in folate-targeted technology as well as for exemplifying this novel therapeutic approach for treating cancer. Dr. Leamon has published over 90 articles and is an inventor on 65 issued or submitted patents involving drug targeting, including those covering vintafolide and etarfolatide. In 2015 he received the 2015 American Chemical Society, George and Christine Sosnovsky Award for Cancer Research. To date Dr. Leamon’s efforts have yielded 10 clinically investigated agents and 1 approved agent (Pluvicto; PSMA-617).

Marriott, Chris

Dr. Marriott completed medical school in Sherbrooke,  residency in London, and currently practices at Hamilton Health Sciences   and St. Joseph’s Hospital in Hamilton.

Saab, Chantal

Chantal Saab is a Nuclear Medicine Technologist who has practiced at McMaster’s Children’s Hospital in Hamilton since 1993. She has been part of a team of health care professionals who strive to provide the best care possible for the pediatric population. As a technologist, she has contributed to the implementation of new and evolving techniques for both the adult and pediatric population in the nuclear medicine departments at Hamilton Health Sciences. Research and excellence in care have always been a passion of hers. She has been the research coordinator for the MCH Nuclear Medicine Department for more than 10 years and also devoted 7 years of her career to managing an imaging research facility for McMaster University. More recently, she has taken on an additional role with the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario as a quality assessor for Independent Health Facilities.

Wiefels, Christiane

Dr. Christiane Wiefels is a Nuclear Medicine physician who graduated from the Federal Fluminense University in Brazil in 2016, completing her training with fellowships in Nuclear Medicine at The Ottawa Hospital and Cardiovascular Imaging at the University of Ottawa Heart Institute. She has been an Assistant Professor at the University of Ottawa in Canada since 2021. She is a Ph.D. in Cardiovascular Sciences from the Federal Fluminense University in Brazil, and her area of expertise is cardiac sarcoidosis. She is an expert case reviewer for cardiac inflammation and infection and leads the Cardiovascular FDG-PET Special Access Program in Ontario, Canada. Dr. Wiefels is board-certified in Nuclear Cardiology by the CBNC; she is a member of the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging (SNMMI), the SNMMI Cardiovascular Council, and the American Society of Nuclear Cardiology (ASNC). She is also part of the Journal of Nuclear Cardiology Editorial Board.

Laidley, David

Dr. David Laidley completed his undergraduate medical degree at Memorial University of Newfoundland. He then went on to complete his Nuclear Medicine residency training at the University of Western Ontario. Following residency, Dr. Laidley completed a one-year fellowship in oncological PET-CT at McGill University. A further six months of dedicated fellowship training in Nuclear Oncology was completed at the University of Western Ontario. Following fellowship training, Dr. Laidley joined the Division of Nuclear Medicine at the University of Western Ontario and is now an associate professor.

Dr. Laidley is actively involved in the treatment and diagnosis of patients with thyroid cancer, neuroendocrine tumours (NETs) and prostate cancer. With respect to NETs, Dr. Laidley is the primary investigator on London's Single-Centre Safety Registry Lu-177 DOTA-TATE study and the local principal investigator (PI) for the provincial Cancer Care Ontario (CCO) Lu-177 DOTA-TATE trial. Dr. Laidley is the local Co-Chair of the Neuroendocrine Disease Site Team (DST) and an active participant in the provincial NET DST rounds. Other theranostic research interests include being the local PI on various NET, PSMA-based and lymphoma therapy trials.

Dr. Laidley is also the current Nuclear Medicine Residency Program Director at Western University.

Silverman, Daniel

Daniel H. Silverman, M.D., Ph.D., is Head of the Neuronuclear Imaging Section at UCLA Medical Center, on the Executive Committee of the UCLA Alzheimer's Disease Center, and a Professor in the Department of Molecular and Medical Pharmacology, University of California, Los Angeles. He obtained his Ph.D. in Biological Chemistry at Harvard University, and postdoctoral research training in Biochemistry and Molecular Pharmacology at Harvard Medical School. He obtained his M.D. from The Ohio State University College of Medicine, subsequently completed post-M.D. training at UCLA, and then obtained certification from both the American Board of Internal Medicine and the American Board of Nuclear Medicine.  He is a faculty member of the Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, Brain Research Institute, and the Physics and Biology in Medicine interdepartmental programs, as well as practicing as a Nuclear Medicine physician of UCLA Health.  

Dr. Silverman is Director of the UCLA Health NeuroPET mobile clinical service, the UCLA NeuroPET Preceptorship program, and the NeuroPET Consultation service, providing interpretive guidance to radiologists and Nuclear Medicine physicians across the U.S. He is the central principal investigator or site principal investigator of several national clinical trials involving neuroimaging and therapeutic strategies aimed at preserving or restoring neuropsychologic performance, and founding member of the International Cancer and Cognition Task Force Neuroimaging Working Group.  He has over two decades of experience in developing software-based tools for rigorous quantitative and statistical analyses of regional brain imaging data, leading to the first medical imaging software package to be cleared by the United States Food and Drug Administration for regional quantification of brain PET.  In adddition, he is co-author of the first book devoted to helping cancer survivors experiencing neurocognitive symptoms, Your BrainAfter Chemo, as well as editor and co-author of the first book devoted exclusively to the subject area of PET acquired for assessment of cognitive dysfunction, PET in the Evaluation of Alzheimer's Disease and Related Disorders. 

Leung, Eugene

(met wife during) Undergraduate Chemistry degree: University of Western Ontario (graduated with Darth Vader during) Medical degree: University of Ottawa (became known as “the doctor with red hair” during) Nuclear Medicine residency: University of Western Ontario Certifications: Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada - Nuclear Medicine American Board of Nuclear Medicine Certification Board of Nuclear Cardiology (asked how old he is everyday during) current work titles: Chief, Nuclear Medicine & Molecular Imaging, Department of Medicine, The Ottawa Hospital Associate Professor, University of Ottawa Clinical Investigator, Ottawa Hospital Research Institute Interests: Radioisotope therapy Nuclear Medicine teaching Enjoys good expresso with his gaming

Wells, R. Glenn 

Dr. Glenn Wells is a medical imaging physicist at the University of Ottawa Heart Institute, an associate professor in Cardiology at the University of Ottawa and an adjunct professor in Physics at Carleton University. He is chair of Working Group 2 developing standards for nuclear medicine instrumentation with the International Electrotechnical Commission (technical committee 62) and chairs an international group working to standardize PET listmode data formats.

He received his PhD in Medical Physics in 1997 from the University of British Columbia.  Following post-doctoral work in the USA, he returned to Canada in 2000 to take a position at the Nuclear Medicine department of St. Joseph’s Hospital (London, ON, Canada).  He joined the University of Ottawa Heart Institute at the end of 2006.

He is an expert in SPECT/CT and PET/CT imaging physics. He has published 99 peer-reviewed papers, 9 book chapters and over 190 conference abstracts.  His research is in image reconstruction and correction methods for attenuation, scatter, camera resolution, and patient motion.  Most recently, his research has focused on cardiac SPECT cameras and the quantification of myocardial blood flow with dynamic imaging.

Nadel, Helen

Dr. Nadel is a dual board -certified Pediatric Radiologist and Nuclear Medicine Physician in both the USA and Canada. She holds certifications from the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada in Diagnostic Radiology and Nuclear Medicine, The American Board of Radiology (ABR) with certificate of added qualification in Pediatric Radiology and the American Board of Nuclear Medicine (ABNM). Dr. Nadel was an Associate Professor of Radiology at University of British Columbia and had been practicing as a pediatric radiologist and pediatric nuclear medicine physician at British Columbia Children’s Hospital in Vancouver, British Columbia since 1983 after medical school at University of Manitoba (1977, Winnipeg, Manitoba), internship and residency at University of Toronto (1978-1982) and Pediatric Radiology fellowship (Chief Fellow) at Hospital for Sick Children (1982-1983, Toronto, Ont.) She has been working with the entire breadth of general and hybrid nuclear medicine studies in children in a fully integrated departed of Pediatric Radiology and lecturing to promote this field for her entire career. Dr. Nadel currently uses PET/MR exclusively for PET imaging at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital at Stanford University. She is the current President of the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging.

Czernin, Johannes

Dr. Johannes Czernin is a Professor and Vice Chair of the Department of Molecular and Medical Pharmacology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. He received his MD degree from the University of Vienna in 1983 and was board certified in Internal

Medicine in Austria in 1989 and in Nuclear Medicine in 1996 in the USA. He was named Director of Nuclear Medicine at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA in 1996 and currently serves as the Chief of the Ahmanson Translational

Theranostics Division at UCLA.

The Division includes the Nuclear Medicine Clinic, a clinical imaging research program, a drug and probe development program with a strong underpinning in tumor biology, a preclinical imaging and biomedical radiochemistry center. His group successfully applied to the FDA for an NDA for a PSMA targeted PET imaging probe in prostate cancer. The Division collaborates within the department of molecular and medical pharmacology and across several other departments including urology, radiation oncology, oncology, surgery, radiology, neurology, pathology and others to advance preclinical and clinical theranostics. Dr. Czernin is currently Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Nuclear Medicine and is a past president of the Academy of Molecular Imaging. He has published more than 300 peerreviewed research papers.

Urbain, Jean-Luc

Born in Belgium in the mid 50’s, I earned my Medical Degree at the University of Louvain, Belgium, and then pursued residency training in Internal Medicine and Nuclear Medicine. I subsequently obtained a Ph.D. in Genetics and Molecular Biology at Temple University in Philadelphia. Professor of Imaging, Medicine and Biology for more than two decades I have had the opportunity and privilege to visit hospitals and medical centers and give lecture on all continents. I consider myself as a citizen of the world.

Through my career, I have held leadership and executive positions in Medical Imaging and Medicine in Belgium at the University of Leuven, in Canada at the University of Western Ontario and in the US at Temple University, Fox Chase Cancer Center, The Cleveland Clinic, the VA Administration and now Wake Forest University. I have extensive experience and expertise in committees and boards leadership, in the management of integrated health care systems and patient advocacy groups and at regional, national and international levels of government.

As Secretary of the Belgian Society of Nuclear Medicine in the 90’s I introduced a multilingual and pluralist approach to the operational tasks of the Society. As President of the Canadian Association of Nuclear Medicine (CANM 2006-2011), I have worked closely with national and international medical associations and government health authorities to mitigate major the major health and medical isotopes crises of 2007-2008, analyzed and helped establish medical resources needs, benchmarks and allocation for key medical service areas. I have also served as consultant and advisor for Pharmaceutical, Radio-pharmaceutical and Medical Systems companies.  My current main interests are in Medical Isotopes Production and Supply, Patients’ Education and Advocacy, Personalized Medicine and Theranostics.

As Chief of Nuclear Medicine at Wake Forest University-Baptist Medical Center, Chair of the Scientific Committee of the CANM, Chair of the SNMMI Global Initiative, President of the WFNMB, I am dedicated to work tireless with all stakeholders to improve the management of patients by 1. Securing the supply of Medical Isotopes 2. Developing NM educational tools accessible to the Nuclear Medicine Communities, Patients and Referring Physicians from around the world 3. Promoting the field of Diagnostic and Therapeutic Nuclear Medicine across the globe, particularly in the underserved countries.

Soucy, Jean-Paul

Jean-Paul Soucy, MD (Nuclear Medicine), M.Sc. (Neuroscience), is Full Professor (Clinical), Radiology Department Université de Montréal and Director of the PET Unit, McGill University.

An early achiever (six local and national awards he received while in medical school), he was also awarded the prestigious McLaughlin Fellowship Award, which funded his fellowship in France on quantitative techniques to measure cerebral blood flow in humans. He has given around 100 talks at local, provincial, national and international meetings, and served on numerous national committees mandated to define best practice guidelines in neuroimaging. Professionally engaged, he has held appointed and elective positions at the local, provincial, national and international levels for several academic, governmental, professional and scientific organizations.

He remains heavily invested in research. His pioneering work on the quantification of brain monoaminergic terminals in rodents helped provide the foundation for molecular imaging tests now used worldwide to evaluate patients with movement disorders. He was instrumental in the development and characterization of a new PET tracer that assesses cholinergic innervation densities in animals and humans and helped demonstrate its potential as a pre-clinical diagnostic tool for Alzheimer’s at a time where treatments are most likely to be effective, as well as for REM Sleep Behavior Disorder, a major biomarker of Parkinson’s disease. With colleagues, he has developed and performed the first human PET study of a ligand for Trk brain receptors, a potential target for new therapeutic approaches in Alzheimer’s. His work on changes in cerebral blood flow after acute/chronic strokes has furthered the understanding of important concepts such as that of the “peri-infarct area”, and of the importance of carrying out thrombolysis in the acute phase of strokes better treat patients. Finally, he continues to work on the development of powerful biomarkers (imaging, liquid, retinal) for neurodegenerative diseases, which are critical for new drugs discovery.

His research activities have been supported through multiple peer-reviewed grants obtained either as a Principal Investigator on 15 innovative projects ($10 080 940), co-applicant on 45 others ($29 201 698), and Principal investigators on14 industry research contracts ($4 696 814). His research contribution has resulted in over 160 articles in research journals, 11 textbook chapters and over 360 presentations at national and international scientific meetings.

Dr Soucy has trained pre- and post-graduate medical students (thrice honored for his excellence in residents’ training), as well as students in neuroscience, pharmacy, and technical schools. He has supervised one PhD, five MSc students, and helped train 35 more post-graduate students.

Murphy, Kristina

It is a wonderful time to be in molecular imaging! My name is Kristina and I have been a medical radiation technologist (MRT) at Eastern Health since 2011. Currently, my role is split between PET/CT and traditional nuclear medicine, affording me the best of both worlds. I enjoy being an advocate for my patients and strive to provide high quality, patient-centered care within the framework of a truly interprofessional team. Our department has grown immensely over the past decade, and I am proud to be part of its evolution. I graduated from Memorial University of Newfoundland with a Biology degree in 2003, taught ESL overseas for quite some time and subsequently returned to Canada to pursue studies at the University of Toronto. In 2011, I completed a Bachelor of Medical Radiations Sciences in Nuclear Medicine and in 2016, I became a certified CT Technologist. In my spare time, I enjoy basketball, cooking and music!

Hasan, Kamel

Dr. Kamel Hasan is an Assistant Professor at McMaster University and is a Nuclear Medicine physician in Hamilton, Ontario. She is also a fellow of the Royal College of Radiologists, UK. Dr. Kamel Hasan completed a Nuclear Medicine residency program at Western University, London, Ontario followed by a fellowship at the Peter McCallum Cancer Centre in Melbourne, Australia. She is board-certified in Nuclear Medicine in both Canada and the United States, in addition to being board certified in Nuclear Cardiology and Cardiovascular CT.

Provost, Karine

Dr. Provost graduated from McGill Medical School in 2013 and completed her Nuclear Medicine residency training at Université de Montréal in 2018. Between 2019 to 2020, Dr Provost undertook subspecialty Fellowship training in PET molecular neuroimaging of dementias at the University of California San Francisco – UCSF Memory and Aging Center. In 2022, she earned a Master’s degree in Biomedical Sciences – Aging Studies, focusing her thesis on the utilization of Tau PET in evaluating neurodegenerative diseases.

Dr. Provost actively participates in the Canadian nuclear medicine community, including as Board member of the Association des Médecins spécialistes en médecine nucléaire du Québec (AMSMNQ) and as President of the Nuclear Medicine Specialty Committee at the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada. She practices nuclear medicine at the Centre Hospitalier de l’Université de Montréal, specializing in brain PET. Additionally, she holds the role of Clinical Assistant Professor at the Department of Radiology, Nuclear Medicine and Radiation Oncology at Université de Montréal. Dr. Provost is also a Clinical Investigator affiliated with the Centre de recherche du Centre Hospitalier de l’Université de Montréal (CRCHUM).    

Zuckier, Lionel

Dr. Lionel Zuckier is Professor of Radiology at Albert Einstein College of Medicine and Division Head of Nuclear Medicine at the Montefiore Medical Center in New York.  Most recently he served as Chief of the Division of Nuclear Medicine at the University of Ottawa, where he maintains a clinical and teaching affiliation.

Dr. Zuckier's goal as an academic nuclear medicine physician and Is to expand the science and practice of nuclear medicine.  He has published several articles and review on topics related to “brain death”, the topic of his session, and has recently participated in a Canada-wide project entitled “A Brain-Based Definition of Death and Criteria for its Determination After Arrest of Circulation or Neurologic Function in Canada”, a partnership between Canadian Blood Services, the Canadian Critical Care Society, and the Canadian Medical Association.

Chassé, Michaël

Dr. Michaël Chassé est médecin spécialiste en médecine de soins intensifs au Centre hospitalier de l'Université de Montréal (CHUM), chercheur principal au Centre de recherche du CHUM et professeur agrégé au Département de médecine et à l'École de santé publique de l'Université de Montréal. Il détient également un doctorat en épidémiologie de l'Université d'Ottawa. Le Dr Chassé est le directeur scientifique du Centre d'intégration et d'analyse des données médicales du CHUM (CITADEL). CITADEL rassemble un groupe de scientifiques et de professionnels spécialisés dans la science des données de santé, la biostatistique, la bioinformatique et l'apprentissage automatique. Il est également directeur scientifique associé de la science des données au Centre de recherche du CHUM. 

Ses principaux intérêts de recherche portent sur l'amélioration des méthodes traditionnelles de recherche épidémiologique à l'aide de nouvelles technologies telles que l'apprentissage automatique et les essais cliniques innovants, en particulier dans les domaines liés aux soins critiques tels que le don d'organes, la transplantation d'organes et les transfusions sanguines.

Pelletier-Galarneau, Matthieu

Dr. Matthieu Pelletier-Galarneau is specialized in nuclear medicine and practices at the Montreal Heart Institute. He is head of the Nuclear Medicine Division at the Montreal Heart Institute and an Associate Professor of Radiology at the Université de Montréal. He holds a Junior 2 Clinical Research Scholarship from the FRQS.

Schaffer, Paul

Paul Schaffer completed his undergraduate in Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of British Columbia in 1998, followed by his graduate work in Chemistry at McMaster University in 2003. After 3 years as a Research Associate at the McMaster Nuclear Reactor, he joined GE Global Research in upstate New York as a Lead Scientist working on radiopharmaceutical development. He has been Associate Laboratory Director, Life Sciences at TRIUMF since 2012, and holds cross appointments in the Depts. of Chemistry at SFU and Radiology at UBC and is an affiliated scientist with the Research Centre for Nuclear Physics in Osaka, Japan.

In response to the 2007-2009 Tc-99m isotope supply crises, Paul spearheaded one of three successive efforts along with his collaborators, to establish proof of concept commercial-scale production of Tc-99m. In recognition of his leadership, Schaffer was recognized by Business in Vancouver as one of British Columbia’s Top Forty under 40 individuals in 2013; followed by the collaborative team being awarded the NSERC Brockhouse Prize for Interdisciplinary Research in 2015. The technology was also the recipient of the 2017 World Council on Isotopes President’s Award, and the 2017 BC TECH - Most Promising Pre-Commercial Technology Award. He is now serving as Chief Technology Officer of ARTMS, Inc. – a spinoff company formed based around the isotope supply technology developed.

His research efforts remain focused on the production and chemical transformation of known and novel isotopes for imaging and therapy. His research interests include the development of novel radiofluorinated amino acids, as well as novel metal-chelate and radiolabeled large molecular weight targeting agents for various imaging and therapeutic applications. He has over 100 peer reviewed publications and 150 presentations, many invited and on the international stage.

Maliha, Peter George

Peter George Maliha is a fellow in nuclear medicine at UCLA having recently completed residency at McGill University, Montreal, Quebec. Endeavoring an academic career, he has supplemented his clinical training with multiple research projects on, amongst other subjects, FDG PET appropriate use, PSMA, vasculitis and digital PET. He is additionally proudly holding the position of resident member of the CANM board of directors. Outside work he is always up for a good movie, a challenging tennis match and recently, a nice trip to the beach post Royal College examination.

Soman, Prem

Prem Soman is tenured Professor of Medicine, and Clinical & Translational Science at the University of Pittsburgh, and the Richard S. Caligiuri endowed chair in amyloidosis and heart failure.  He is Associate Chief of Cardiology, Director of Nuclear Cardiology, the Cardiac Imaging Fellowship, and the Multidisciplinary Cardiac Amyloidosis Center at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC).

He is Associate Editor of Circulation CV Imaging, and Senior Guest Editor of the Journal of Nuclear Cardiology. Dr. Soman has co-authored numerous original research papers, guidelines, reviews and text book chapters. He was awarded the Hermann Blumgart award for distinguished service to nuclear cardiology by the CV Council of the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging in 2016 and the Outstanding Educator award in 2022. He was elected a Master of the American Society of Nuclear Cardiology in 2018. Past leadership positions include President of the American Society of Nuclear Cardiology in 2018, and previously, Chair of the Imaging Council of the ACC, and President of the CV Council of the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging

De Bourbon, Quinn

Quinn is a current Masters student studying medical physics at Carleton university. She is a research assistant at the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute under Dr. Ran Klein, working on lesion insertion in PET/CT data. She is a creative problem solver, with an interest in pursuing a career in medical or radiation physics.

Dekemp, Rob

Dr. deKemp obtained his B.A.Sc. in Systems Design Engineering at the University of Waterloo, Canada.  Following work in the remote sensing and medical imaging industry, he completed a M.Sc. in medical physics and Ph.D. in electrical and computer engineering at the E.S.Garnett Department of Nuclear Medicine at McMaster University. He then returned to Ottawa in 1994 to help establish the National Cardiac PET Centre with Dr. Rob Beanlands at the University of Ottawa Heart Institute.  He is presently Associate Professor of Medicine (Cardiology) and Engineering at the University of Ottawa, Adjunct Professor of Science (Medical Physics) and Engineering at Carleton University and past-director of the Ottawa Medical Physics Institute at Carleton University in Ottawa. Dr. deKemp is the Head Imaging Physicist, co-Director of the Preclinical Imaging Core of the Ottawa Region (PICOR) and Director of the Cardiovascular Imaging Research Core Laboratory (CIRCL) at the University of Ottawa Heart Institute. He has served as a member of the Cardiovascular Council of the Society of Nuclear Medicine, Associate Editor of Circulation Cardiovascular Imaging, is a current member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of Nuclear Cardiology, past chair of the ASNC Technical Committee and co-Chair of the PET Quality Assurance committee for the Province of Ontario.  His research is focused on the development of quantitative imaging biomarkers for cardiac PET.  He developed a rubidium-82 generator and elution system licensed to Jubilant Pharma (DraxImage), myocardial blood flow image analysis methods licensed to INVIA Medical Imaging, as well as analysis methods tailored for quantification of myocardial metabolism and cell signaling that have become the clinical and industry standards for cardiac PET.

Schwartz, Ronald

Ronald G. Schwartz MD MS is Professor of Medicine and Professor of Imaging Sciences and an Attending Cardiologist at the University of Rochester Medical Center, Rochester, NY where he sees both inpatients and outpatients. He serves as Director of Nuclear Cardiology and Cardiac PET CT, and Director of the Cardiovascular Nuclear Medicine Training Program at URMC. Dr. Schwartz is an active clinical cardiologist with special interests in cardiac imaging, nutrition, and cardiovascular risk management. He is board certified in Internal Medicine, Cardiovascular Disease, Nuclear Medicine, and Nuclear Cardiology.

Dr. Schwartz completed his undergraduate and medical degrees at the University of Rochester, and earned the MS Degree in Human Nutrition from Columbia University. His residency training in internal medicine was completed at the Hennepin County Medical Center of the University of Minnesota. His cardiology and nuclear medicine training were completed at Yale University. He is a Founding Member of the American Society of Nuclear Cardiology and is Past President of the Cardiovascular Council of the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging. Dr. Schwartz initiated and lectures in the current ASNC and SNMMI 80 hour NRC approved radioisotope authorized user training course.

Hotte, Sébastien

Dr. Hotte is currently an Associate Professor in the Department of Oncology of McMaster University and is a staff oncologist and the Clinical and Academic Head of the Division of Medical Oncology at the Juravinski Cancer Centre. His main research interests are in Developmental Therapeutics, especially pertaining to genito-urinary (GU) cancers and especially prostate cancer, with clinical interests in GU malignancies. He is the Chair of the Canadian Cancer Trials Group (CCTG) GU disease site group and the co-Chair of the Program for Evidence-Based Care GU group.  He is the principle or co-author of over 160 peer-reviewed articles and over 200 original abstracts but first and foremost he is a husband and the proud father of two exceptional children, as well as an on again/off again road cycling weekend warrior and Zwifter.

Probst, Stephan

Chief of Nuclear Medicine, Jewish General Hospital, Montreal, QC

Stephan Probst is a nuclear medicine physician at the Jewish General Hospital in Montreal. He has a special interest in theranostics and PSMA PET.

Selivanova, Svetlana

Prof. Svetlana Selivanova is radiopharmaceutical chemist with more than 15 years of experience in the development of radiopharmaceuticals from early R&D to first-in-human clinical trials. She holds MSc in chemistry and PhD in radiopharmaceutical chemistry and radiobiology. Currently, she is researcher at CHU de Quebéc−Université Laval Research Centre and adjunct professor at the Faculty of Pharmacy, Université Laval, overseeing implementation of a new PET cyclotron and radiopharmaceutical facility at the CHU de Quebéc−Université Laval University Hospital. Previously, she held senior research positions at Sherbrooke University Hospital (Canada) and at the Center for Radiopharmaceutical Sciences, ETH Zurich (Switzerland). She is recognized for her contribution to R&D and translation effort for the production of Tc-99m with cyclotron. More recently, in collaboration with the Division of Nuclear Medicine at CHU de Quebéc−Université Laval, she introduced an investigational prostate cancer radiopharmaceutical, 177Lu-PSMA-I&T, which was not available to patients in Canada until then. Prof. Selivanova is an active member of several professional societies and currently serves as Vice-President-Elect of the SNMMI Radiopharmaceutical Sciences Council, member of the SNMMI Committee on Radiopharmaceuticals, and Executive Member of the Canadian Association of Radiopharmaceutical Scientists.

Farncombe, Troy

Dr. Farncombe is a clinical Imaging Physicist in the Departments of Nuclear Medicine at Hamilton Health Sciences and St. Joseph’s Healthcare, Hamilton, ON. He also holds an academic appointment as Professor of Radiology at McMaster University along with associate memberships in Biomedical Engineering and Physics. After receiving his PhD from UBC, he held a post-doctoral fellowship at UMass Medical School, prior to taking up his present position in Hamilton.  His research interests are primarily in the area of hardware development for new imaging systems, focussing mainly on the application of new detectors for SPECT/MR imaging and on multi-spectral photoacoustic imaging. He has previously held grants from the National Institutes of Health (USA), Ontario Research Fund and NSERC.      

Schindler, Thomas

Thomas Hellmut Schindler, MD, PhD, is Full Professor at the Washington University in St. Louis in Radiology and Medicine, Consultant in Medicine, and Director of imaging fellowship, cardiovascular PET/CT program. In addition, he is also appointed as adjunct Associate Professor of Medicine at the Johns Hopkins University. Between 02/2013-12/2017, Dr. Schindler served as Director of Nuclear Cardiovascular Medicine at the Johns Hopkins University. Dr. Schindler has an international reputation in the field of Cardiovascular Imaging with focus on cardiovascular PET/CT imaging. He received his medical degree (1995) and doctor medecinae, (1996) from the University of Leipzig, Germany ("magna cum laude"). He is board certified for Internal Medicine, Cardiology and Nuclear Cardiology. Thomas Schindler had joined the faculty of the University of Geneva (Switzerland), initially as assistant professor and clinical attending primarily in charge for Cardiovascular Imaging but also for General Clinical Cardiology, while being promoted to "Privat-Docent" in 2009 and Deputy Head Physician in Cardiology 2010. His research work has made major contributions in the identification and characterization of coronary circulatory dysfunction, cardiac sarcoidosis, and myocardial receptor imaging by means of PET. He received the SNMMI 2020 Presidential Distinguished Educator Award and the 2018 Cardiovascular Council Hermann Blumgart Award.

A. Lucinian, Yousif 

Second year nuclear medicine resident at the University of Montreal. I do research in the Nuclear Medicine department of the Montreal Heart Institute under Dr Matthieu Pelletier-Galarneau. Masters of sciences candidate at the University of Montreal.