Edward Joseph Hoffman (January 1, 1942 – July 1, 2004) helped invent the first human PET scanner, a commonly used whole-body scanning procedure for detecting diseases like

cancer Cancer is a group of diseases involving Cell growth#Disorders, abnormal cell growth with the potential to Invasion (cancer), invade or Metastasis, spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Po ...

. Hoffman, with Michel Ter-Pogossian and Michael E. Phelps, developed the

Positron Emission Tomography Positron emission tomography (PET) is a functional imaging technique that uses radioactive substances known as radiotracers to visualize and measure changes in metabolic processes, and in other physiological activities including blood flow, r ...

scanner in 1973. Hoffman was born in St. Louis, Missouri. He earned a BS chemistry from

Saint Louis University Saint Louis University (SLU) is a private university, private Society of Jesus, Jesuit research university in St. Louis, Missouri, United States. Founded in 1818 by Louis William Valentine DuBourg, it is the oldest university west of the Missi ...

in 1963, his Ph.D. in Nuclear Chemistry from Washington University in St. Louis in 1970 and completed postgraduate work in nuclear chemistry at the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (Penn or UPenn) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. One of nine colonial colleges, it was chartered in 1755 through the efforts of f ...

. In 1972 he joined the faculty of Washington University's School of Medicine, where he and Dr. Michael Phelps began developing what later became known as the PET scanner, used to detect cancer, heart disease and other serious illnesses. In 1975, Phelps and Hoffman moved to the University of Pennsylvania. Starting in 1976, Hoffman was a professor at

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school then known as the southern branch of the C ...

medical school in the Departments of Molecular and Medical Pharmacology and Radiological Sciences. In 1999, he authored a book that reviews the biochemical basis of alternative medical treatments for cancer. He served as Editor-in-Chief of the journal '' IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science''.J Pearce
Edward J. Hoffman, Medical Imaging Researcher, Dies at 62"
''NY Times'', July 25, 2004] He died of liver cancer in Los Angeles, California, Los Angeles,

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

Bibliography

* Hoffman, EJ (2008)
Cancer and the Search for Selective Biochemical Inhibitors
', 2nd edition, ''CRC Press'',

References

External links

Eulogy by Michael Phelps
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hoffman, Edward J. 1942 births 2004 deaths 20th-century American inventors Saint Louis University alumni Washington University in St. Louis alumni Washington University School of Medicine faculty David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA faculty