Awards

Dear ISORBE members!

It is our great pleasure to inform you of a wonderful accomplishment from one of our members, Dr. Vijay Kumar. Vijay has been awarded an appointment as a Member of the General Division of the Order of Australia as of January 26, 2017.

The Order of Australia is an order of chivalry established on 14 February 1975 by Elizabeth II, Queen of Australia, to recognize Australian citizens and other persons for achievement or meritorious service.

Vijay’s medical career began in 1974 when he came to Sydney to work at St. Vincents Hospital and later Liverpool Hospital. For over 20 years now he has worked at Westmead Hospital at the Department of Nuclear Medicine, where he is currently a principal radiopharmaceutical scientist. He is also currently Treasurer and Governing Council Member of the World Federation of Nuclear Medicine and Biology. Until last year he was the President of the Australian and New Zealand Society of Nuclear Medicine. In addition, he is a consultant scientific expert for the United Nations IAEA, where he has aided in establishing nuclear medicine facilities in many SE Asia and African nations. He is also currently on the board of directors for ISORBE. His research interests include designing radiolabeled radiopharmaceuticals in pre-clinical animal studies, which are then used in clinical patient studies. His work has aided in developing Ga-68 labeled PET agents for imaging prostate cancer, bacterial infections and neuroendocrine tumors, as well as imaging agents in F18 FET for brain tumors.

Vijay has made a meaningful impression in the field of nuclear medicine and we are very pleased that his achievements have been recognized and awarded with such a remarkable award!

Congratulations Vijay from all of us at ISORBE!

On May 19^th 2016, Helmut Sinzinger received the honorary membership of the Slovak Society for Thrombosis and Haemostasis as only the 3^rd in their history. A couple of weeks before he was already honoured for his “great scientific achievements and his outstanding merits for the Viennese Physicians Society” founded 1837, with the most prestigious Billroth- medal named after the most important and long-lasting president, the well-known Viennese surgeon Theodor Billroth.

ISORBE Celebrates Silver Jubilee

ISORBE was established in 1989. During the one day ISORBE session on August 29^th, 2014 at the 11^th congress of the World Federation of Nuclear Medicine and Biology, ISORBE had chosen to celebrate its 25^th anniversary, the Silver Jubilee. ISORBE presidium had asked Mathew Thakur, one of its founding members, its first president, and the first John McAfee Gold Medalist, to do the following three things;

 

1. A brief history:

Mathew provided, for the benefit for those who may not have known, a brief history of his work that began in 1974 in collaboration with late John McAfee, MD, and the work Mathew carried out subsequently with his other collaborator. These important milestones are listed below in Table 1. This led to the foundation of ISORBE in 1989 and this exciting field, which has further grown and continued to contribute so much in the field of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging.

 

2. To honor the past presidents of ISORBE:

As of 2014, ISORBE has 8 living past presidents. Unfortunately, one past president Wolfgang Becker (MD, PhD, 1997-1999) passed away in 2003. We miss him dearly. The eight presidents are Mathew Thakur (1989 – 1992), Helmut Sinzinger (1992-1995), Jose Martin-Conin (1995-1997), Alberto Signore (1999-2001), Margarita Rodriguez (2001-2003), Chris Palestro (2003-2007), Victoria Sonoa (2007-2011), and Kutlan Ozker (2011-2013). The current president, Michael Sathekge joined Mathew in thanking the past presidents for their valuable contributions to the field, to ISORBE, and for their continued support to ISORBE, to its sustainability, and its enhanced growth. Each attending president was given by Mathew a personal gift as a token of his appreciation of their time and effort and a lapel pin (Fig 1) on behalf of the current president and the presidium of ISORBE.

 

3. Second John McAfee Gold Medal:

On this occasion of the Silver Jubilee of ISORBE, the presidium had chosen one of the founding members of ISORBE. Not only has this person helped found ISORBE, but he also helped Mathew and John McAfee to establish ISORBEs constitution and its registration in Vienna, Austria as an International Society. Over the past 25 years, this individual not only served as the president of ISORBE, but worked diligently to enhance its growth, educational activities, and preserved and protected the ISORBE constitution. Needless to add that he also made and continues to make intellectual contributions to the field of ISORBE. That person and the recipient of the second John McAfee Gold Medal was Dr. Helmut Sinzinger.
Mathew and the president Sathekge thank Helmut and offered him the medal, the inscription of which read as below:

 

A photograph taken at that historical event is given below.

We congratulate Helmut for this honor, well deserved.

 

The Mc Afee Medal
The following qualifications are necessary to be eligible for the award:

1. The candidate must be an active member of ISORBE
2. The candidate must have demonstrated a long-term commitment to the ideals and mission of ISORBE
3. Any member can nominate a candidate for the award; however, the nomination must be seconded by
   at lest two additional active ISORBE members
4. It was agreed that the award (medal and certificate) will be given only at the Biennial Congress, but that
   it is not required that the award must be given at every Congress
5. At least 6 months before the award is to be presented, the presidium will select the winner by simple
   majority vote

W.  Becker’s Travel Award
There are 3 travel grants (of EUR 500 each) for young investigators who will submit an abstract to the
forthcoming ISORBE Meeting in Nijmegen, The Netherlands (March 31 – April 2, 2011)

The Mc Afee Medal:
Prof. Mathew THAKUR (USA)
was awarded in Cartagena, November 2009

W.  Becker’s Travel Grant (sponsored by Amersham):
Dr. Khanna PADMAMALIKA (India)
“Tumour uptake for radiolabelled bioconjugates (RB) after external irradiation:
effect on tumour uptake and on serum levels of tumour markers”

Dr. Joseph Mabika BIDINGIJA (India)
“HLA class II distribution in Congolese with hyperthyroidism”
at the 12th ISORBE Meeting in Villigen, Switzerland, September 2005

Dr. Funda AYDIN (Turkey)
“Tc-99m labelled HMPAO white blood cell scintigraphy in pediatric patients”,

Dr.Alejandro FERNANDEZ (Spain)
“PET/CT with 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose in patients with fever of unknown origin”

Dr. Dugygu YOERUEK (Turkey)
at the 14th ISORBE Meeting in Antalya, Turkey, March 2009

ISORBE Young Investigator Award (sponsored by Nycomed-Amersham):
Dr. Alessio ANNOVAZZI (Italy)
“Radiolabeled cytokines for the in-vivo detection of activated T-lymphocytes: in-vitro
and animal studies”
at the 10th ISORBE Meeting in Toronto, Canada, June 2001

Dr. Calogero D’ALESSANDRIA (Italy)
“Use of a 99mTc-labelled anti-TNFa monoclonal antibody in Crohn’s disease and in
rheumatoid arthritis: in-vitro and in-vivo studies”
at the 11th ISORBE Meeting in Coimbra, Portugal, April 2003

Dr. Dimitrios KARDAMAKIS and Evangelia PAPADIMITRIOU (Greece)
“Mechanisms through which x-rays affect angiogenesis in-vivo”.
at the 13th ISORBE Meeting in Santa Cruz, Bolivia, December 2007

Best Poster presentation
Dr. Bianca GUTFILEN (Brazil)
“Scintigraphic detection of myocardins in chronic Chagas patients by Tc-99m-lymphocytes”

Dr. Napoleone PRANDINI (Italy)
“Tc-99m-ciprofoxacin in the imaging of central bone infections”
at the 10th ISORBE Meeting in Toronto, Canada, June 2001