Robert N. Beck
1928-2008

Robert N. Beck, pioneer in the development of the mathematical theory of radionuclide imaging and in the conceptualization of the field of imaging science, died August 6, 2008, from myelodysplasia, a form of leukemia. He was 80.
Bob Beck was born in San Angelo, TX, in 1928; served in the U.S. Navy from 1946 to 1948; and entered in 1948, at age 20, the Hutchins College of the University of Chicago. This entrance was the beginning of a direct and continuous affiliation with the University of Chicago that lasted 60 years.* In 2008, at the time of his death, Robert N. Beck was Professor Emeritus, Department of Radiology, the University of Chicago (UC).
Throughout his 50-year professional career, Beck made significant contributions to the fields of nuclear medicine, medical imaging, and imaging science. Some of those contributions follow.
In the 1950s, through adaptation of principles, concepts, and methods of the physical sciences, Beck and colleagues developed a statistical-criterion-based theory for determination of the optimum gamma-ray energies for specific imaging applications (l,4,8). Application of the theory was pursued in the early 1960s and resulted in the first uses and the rapid acceptance of Tc-99m for clinical imaging—with the first protocols being some designed and executed for brain tumor detection (3). This work was conducted by Paul Harper, Katherine Lathrop, Don Charleston, and Bob Beck at the UC Argonne Cancer Research Hospital (ACRH). In the 1960s and 70s, Beck and colleagues also developed a theory of optimum collimator design for single-photon emission imaging (1,5); introduced Fourier methods designed to characterize the spatial resolution of radionuclide imaging systems and to account quantitatively for the effects of septal penetration and scattering on the contrast of emission images (4,5,8,9,10); and designed and built several imaging systems, including several animal imaging systems (2), a brain scanner (6), and the first whole-body scanner utilizing a scintillation camera rather than a rectilinear scanner.
In 1976, Beck was promoted from Associate Professor to Professor; and in 1977, Professor Beck was appointed Director of the Franklin McLean Memorial Research Institute (FMI, formerly ACRH). During the 1980s and 90s, Professor Beck and colleagues advanced their theoretical work on analysis of systems, advanced their foundational work on collimator design, and pursued development of application-specific imaging systems (14). They also developed algorithms for retrospective superposition of brain images from positron emission tomography (PET) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) systems or PET and computed tomography (CT) systems (11) and developed PET-MRI methods for quantitative studies of drug effects on brain metabolism. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Professor Beck pursued efforts to define and advance the field of imaging science (12,13,15) while Director Beck with others constructed the UC PET-VI and developed the UC FMI PET Center (with Nicholas J. Yasillo and Malcolm Cooper, MD), the UC Frank Center for Image Analysis (with Malcolm Cooper, MD, and Chin-Tu Chen, Ph.D.), the UC Maurice Goldblatt Center for Magnetic Resonance Imaging (with David N. Levin, MD, Ph.D.), and the UC-Argonne National Laboratory Center for Imaging Science (UC-ANL CIS) (with Albert V. Crewe, Ph.D.).
From 1960 to 1970, Robert N. Beck co-authored more than 25 published papers, on which he was lead or sole author of 15, and on which he was sole author of 9. In this period, he also co-edited, with Dr. Alexander Gottschalk, the book Fundamental Problems in Scanning (7); it was published in 1968 and was based on the content of a 1965 ACRH symposium of a similar name. The book and its material served as the foundation of education and research in radioisotope imaging theory and instrumentation for many years. Robert N. Beck’s final CV, spanning 1960 to 2008, lists nearly 250 publications and significant presentations.
During his career, Beck received many awards including the 1996 IEEE Medical Imaging Scientist Award, the first given by the IEEE NPSS. Three of his awards and the associated citations reflect his contributions to imaging science, nuclear medicine, and medical imaging, respectively:
1991 Computer Smithsonian Nominee Award: For heroic achievement in information technology in recognition of your visionary use of information technology in the field of imaging science.
1991 Society of Nuclear Medicine Aebersold Award: For outstanding achievement in basic science applied to nuclear medicine.
1996 IEEE Medical Imaging Scientist Award: For fundamental contributions to the mathematical and physical theories underlying nuclear medicine, medical imaging, and imaging science and for contributions to education and inspiration of generations of imaging scientists.
Bob is survived by his wife of 50 years Ariadne (Plumis) Beck of Indian Head Park, IL, and by two sisters Mary Ann Beck and Dorothy Corbell of San Angelo, TX.
* [AB, liberal arts, 1954; BS, mathematics and physics, 1955; Chief Scientist, Argonne Cancer Research Hospital (ACRH), 1957-67; Research Associate (Assistant Professor), 1964-67; Associate Professor, 1967-76; Professor, 1976-98; Director, Section of Radiological Sciences, Radiology, 1976-94; Director, The Franklin McLean Memorial Research Institute (FMI), 1977-94; Director, The University of Chicago-Argonne National Laboratory Center for Imaging Science (UC-ANL CIS), 1986-98; Professor Emeritus, 1998-2008]

1. Beck, RN. A theoretical evaluation of brain scanning systems. J. Nucl Med 2:314-324, 1961.
2. Beck, RN and Charleston DB. A small animal scanning system. Int J Appl Rad and Isotopes 15:101-106, 1964.
3. Harper, PV, Beck, RN, Charleston, DB, and Lathrop, KA. Optimization of a scanning method using Tc-99m. Nucleonics 22:50-54, 1964.
4. Beck RN. A theory of radioisotope scanning systems. In Medical Radioisotope Scanning, Vol 1, IAEA, Vienna, Austria, pp 35-56, 1964.
5. Beck RN. Collimators for radioisotope scanning systems. In Medical Radioisotope Scanning, Vol 1, IAEA, Vienna, Austria, pp 211-232, 1964.
6. Beck RN, Charleston DB, Eidelberg PE, and Harper PV. The Argonne Cancer Research Hospital's brain scanning system. J Nucl Med 8:1-14, 1967.
7. Gottschalk A and Beck RN (Eds). Fundamental Problems in Scanning, Charles C Thomas, Springfield, Illinois, 1968.
8. Beck RN and Harper PV. Criteria for comparing radioisotope imaging systems. Chapter 30, pp 348-384 in Fundamental Problems in Scanning (reference #7), 1968.
9. Beck RN, Schuh MW, Cohen TD, and Lembares N. Effects of scattered radiation on scintillation detector response. In Medical Radioisotope Scintigraphy, Vol 1, IAEA, Vienna, Austria, pp 595-616, 1969.
10. Beck RN, Zimmer LT, Charleston DB, Harper PV, and Hoffer PB. Advances in fundamental aspects of imaging systems and techniques. In Medical Radioisotope Scintigraphy 1972. Vol 1, IAEA, Vienna, Austria, pp 3-45, 1973.
11. Levin DN, Hu X, Tan KK, Galhotra S, Pelizzari CA, Chen GTY, Beck RN, Chen C-T, Cooper MD, Mullan JE, Hekmatpanah J, and Spire J-P. The brain: Integrated three-dimensional display of MR and PET images. Radiology 172:783-789, 1989.
12. Beck RN. Overview of Imaging Science. Proc Natl Acad Sci Vol 90, pp 9746-9750, 1993.
13. Beck RN. Issues of Imaging Science for Future Consideration. Proc Natl Acad Sci Vol 90, pp 9803-9807, 1993.
14. Yasillo NJ, Mintzer RA, Aarsvold JN, Beck RN, Block TA, Chen C-T, Cooper M, Heimsath SJ, Matthews KL II, Ordonez CE, Pan X, and Wu C. A single-tube gamma camera for clinical imaging. Conference Record of the 1993 IEEE NSS/MIC, Vol 2, pp 1073-1076, 1994.
15. Beck RN. The Future of Imaging Science. In Advances in Visual Semiotics: The Semiotic Web. pp 609-642, (Thomas Sebeok and Jean Umiker-Sebeok, eds) Walter de Gruyter, Mouton Publications, Berlin. 1994.
    
    This article was prepared by John N. Aarsvold who can be reached at jaarsvo@emory.edu.