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We have all lost a tremendous
colleague, and many of us have lost a treasured friend. But with
the death of Ed Hoffman on July 1st 2004, those that were fortunate
enough to be trained in his lab also lost their scientific father
figure, a man who was there for us from the day we entered his lab,
to his last day on this earth.
I first became aware of Ed when I was a graduate student in England
in the mid 1980s. At that time, much of what was worth reading in
the field of PET instrumentation had the name Edward J. Hoffman
on the cover. I still have many of those reprints, now dog-eared,
coffee-stained and falling apart from the hundreds of times I have
consulted them. Despite the tremendous advances in technology since
that time, these papers remain as relevant today as the day they
were written. I am sure they will endure for many future generations
of scientists interested in studying the quantitative basis of PET
imaging.
I was lucky to have the opportunity to join Ed's lab at the beginning
of 1990. I remember early on, that I was actually a little frustrated
at Ed's style as a mentor. I had expected as my supervisor he would
tell me what to do. Get me working on a particular project. But
that was not Ed's approach. He just engaged me in some general discussions
on various aspects of PET, put an occasional paper under my nose,
and then waited for me to come at him with questions and ideas.
It is only recently that I have come to fully appreciate what an
outstanding mentor he was, in that his approach is designed to produce
free-thinking and independent scientists rather than laboratory
technicians. He knew that if you tell people what to do, and tell
them how to do it, it does not expand the mind, it does not challenge
the individual and it does not lead to new scientific breakthroughs.
Another very important thing I learned from Ed is that work is fun.
We all put in long hours in the lab, but Ed made sure that beach
picnics, Christmas parties, and celebrations for anything worth
celebrating, were all a part of the scientific culture. Ed, and
his wife Carolyn, frequently opened up their home for gatherings
that reinforced the importance of friendship and brought us all
together for happy times. And if work was fun, conferences were
even more fun! Ed was the center of social activities at IEEE MIC
meetings, and would attract large groups around him as we spent
many long nights in bars setting the world straight. We all had
to build up amazing stamina for these conferences, especially since
it was usually not Ed, but one of us, that had to get up the next
morning to give an 8 AM talk!
Over the last few years, Ed has been a constant source of advice
and support, helping my career in many ways I know of, and probably
many that I don't know of. I'm not sure I ever was able to thank
him properly for that, although hopefully he knew how much it was
appreciated.
It's hard in just a few short paragraphs to do any real justice
to Ed's life. The legacy he leaves behind speaks to his professional
accomplishments, especially in the development of positron emission
tomography, and his tremendously positive impact on the field of
nuclear medical imaging science. He, as much as any other individual
I can think of, has been responsible for the growth of our field,
and in establishing the IEEE NPSS as its society home. However,
despite all of his achievements, the Ed that I remember is the Ed
who did all he could to help every trainee that passed through his
open door, and while turning us into researchers, also taught us
how to enjoy ourselves.
If there is any comfort we can take from his untimely death, it
is that we have many wonderful memories of the time we spent together,
and that his spirit lives, and will continue to live, in all of
us who have been fortunate enough to work with him over the years.
There is a little bit of Ed in all of us, and we are all the better
for it.
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Dr. Ed Hoffman, with his wife Carolyn,
after receiving the 2002 IEEE Medical Imaging Scientist Award
in Norfolk, VA. Standing from left to right are Dr. Yuan-Chuan
Tai (Washington University), Dr. Martin Tornai (Duke University),
Dr. Craig Levin (Stanford University), Dr. Simon Cherry (UC
Davis), Dr. Arion Chatziioannou (UCLA) and Dr. Magnus Dahlbom
(UCLA), all of whom spent time training in Dr. Hoffman's laboratory.
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