Robert Nason Beck
Encyclopedia
San Angelo, Texas
San Angelo is a city in the state of Texas. Located in West Central Texas it is the county seat of Tom Green County. As of 2010 according to the United States Census Bureau, the city had a total population of 93,200...
– 6 August 2008 in Chicago, Illinois) was an American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
scientist and a pioneer in the field of nuclear medicine
Nuclear medicine
In nuclear medicine procedures, elemental radionuclides are combined with other elements to form chemical compounds, or else combined with existing pharmaceutical compounds, to form radiopharmaceuticals. These radiopharmaceuticals, once administered to the patient, can localize to specific organs...
. Part of a University of Chicago
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...
team, he was the first to propose, in 1961, the use of the radioisotope technetium
Technetium
Technetium is the chemical element with atomic number 43 and symbol Tc. It is the lowest atomic number element without any stable isotopes; every form of it is radioactive. Nearly all technetium is produced synthetically and only minute amounts are found in nature...
-99m to detect disease using Positron Emission Tomography
Positron emission tomography
Positron emission tomography is nuclear medicine imaging technique that produces a three-dimensional image or picture of functional processes in the body. The system detects pairs of gamma rays emitted indirectly by a positron-emitting radionuclide , which is introduced into the body on a...
, a technique that is presently used an estimated 20 million times a year throughout the world. Beck also helped develop collimator
Collimator
A collimator is a device that narrows a beam of particles or waves. To "narrow" can mean either to cause the directions of motion to become more aligned in a specific direction or to cause the spatial cross section of the beam to become smaller.- Optical collimators :In optics, a collimator may...
s for sharpening the images produced by gamma-ray scanners, and was referred to as 'Mr. Collimator' by colleagues.
Career
Beck attended Angelo State UniversityAngelo State University
Angelo State University is a public, coeducational, doctoral level degree-granting university located in San Angelo, Texas, United States. It was founded in 1928 as San Angelo College. It gained University status and awarded its first baccalaureate degrees in 1967 and graduate degrees in 1969, the...
for a year before joining the United States Navy
United States Navy
The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...
in 1946, where he worked as an electronics technician. Upon his discharge, Beck enrolled at the University of Chicago
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...
, where he earned a B.A. in 1954 and a B.S. in mathematics in 1955.
Beck was appointed chief scientist and director of Argonne Cancer Research Hospital (ACRH) in 1957. In 1977, he was named director of ACRH's successor, Franklin McLean Memorial Research Institute. In 1986, he founded and directed the Center for Imaging Science shared between the University of Chicago and Argonne National Laboratory
Argonne National Laboratory
Argonne National Laboratory is the first science and engineering research national laboratory in the United States, receiving this designation on July 1, 1946. It is the largest national laboratory by size and scope in the Midwest...
.
Beck also served as a professor of radiology at the University of Chicago until his retirement in 1998. During his life, Beck published nearly 250 scientific papers and served on several task forces, in the field, especially for the Society of Nuclear Medicine
Society of Nuclear Medicine
The Society of Nuclear Medicine, or SNM, based in Reston, Virginia, is a nonprofit organization founded in 1954. There are 17,000 members: physicians, pharmacists, physicists and scientists, except for a separate section of 10,000 technologists...
and the International Atomic Energy Agency
International Atomic Energy Agency
The International Atomic Energy Agency is an international organization that seeks to promote the peaceful use of nuclear energy, and to inhibit its use for any military purpose, including nuclear weapons. The IAEA was established as an autonomous organization on 29 July 1957...
.
Personal life
Beck's mother was a member of the ComancheComanche
The Comanche are a Native American ethnic group whose historic range consisted of present-day eastern New Mexico, southern Colorado, northeastern Arizona, southern Kansas, all of Oklahoma, and most of northwest Texas. Historically, the Comanches were hunter-gatherers, with a typical Plains Indian...
tribe, accounting for Beck's long term interest in American Indian matters. He was, for example, one of the earliest members of the National Museum of the American Indian
National Museum of the American Indian
The National Museum of the American Indian is a museum operated under the auspices of the Smithsonian Institution that is dedicated to the life, languages, literature, history, and arts of the native Americans of the Western Hemisphere...
. Robert Beck married Ariadne Plumis in 1958, and they celebrated their 50th anniversary shortly before his death.
He died after a several-year battle with myelodysplastic syndrome
Myelodysplastic syndrome
The myelodysplastic syndromes are a diverse collection of hematological medical conditions that involve ineffective production of the myeloid class of blood cells....
, a form of leukemia
Leukemia
Leukemia or leukaemia is a type of cancer of the blood or bone marrow characterized by an abnormal increase of immature white blood cells called "blasts". Leukemia is a broad term covering a spectrum of diseases...
.
External links
- Obituary at the Chicago Sun-TimesChicago Sun-TimesThe Chicago Sun-Times is an American daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois. It is the flagship paper of the Sun-Times Media Group.-History:The Chicago Sun-Times is the oldest continuously published daily newspaper in the city...