Robert Nason Beck (March 26, 1928, in

San Angelo, Texas San Angelo ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Tom Green County, Texas, United States. Its location is in the Concho Valley, a region of West Texas between the Permian Basin (North America), Permian Basin to the northwest, Chihuahuan Desert ...

– August 6, 2008, in

Chicago, Illinois Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

) was an American scientist and a pioneer in the field of

nuclear medicine Nuclear medicine (nuclear radiology, nucleology), is a medical specialty involving the application of radioactivity, radioactive substances in the diagnosis and treatment of disease. Nuclear imaging is, in a sense, ''radiology done inside out'', ...

. Part of a

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, or UChi) is a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its main campus is in the Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, Chic ...

team, he was the first to propose, in 1961, the use of the

radioisotope A radionuclide (radioactive nuclide, radioisotope or radioactive isotope) is a nuclide that has excess numbers of either neutrons or protons, giving it excess nuclear energy, and making it unstable. This excess energy can be used in one of three ...

technetium Technetium is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol Tc and atomic number 43. It is the lightest element whose isotopes are all radioactive. Technetium and promethium are the only radioactive elements whose neighbours in the sense ...

-99m to detect disease using

Single Photon Emission Computed Tomography Single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT, or less commonly, SPET) is a nuclear medicine tomographic imaging technique using gamma rays. It is very similar to conventional nuclear medicine planar imaging using a gamma camera (that is, ...

, a technique that is used an estimated 20 million times a year throughout the world.University of Chicago,
Nuclear medicine pioneer Robert Beck, 1928–2008
, press release, August 13, 2008, accessed August 2008. Beck also helped develop

collimator A collimator is a device which 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 (i.e., make collimated light or parallel rays), or to cause the spat ...

s for sharpening the images produced by gamma-ray scanners, and was referred to as 'Mr. Collimator' by colleagues.Pearce, Jeremy (August 17, 2008)
Robert N. Beck, 80, Leader in Advancing Scanning for Medical Diagnoses, Dies.
''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'', August 18, 2008

Career

Beck attended

Angelo State University Angelo State University is a public university 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 s ...

for a yearBoyle, Jayna
Researcher was a role model
, ''Go Angelo'' website, accessed August 2008. before joining the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the naval warfare, maritime military branch, service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest Displacement (ship), displacement, at 4.5 millio ...

in 1946, where he worked as an electronics technician. Upon his discharge, Beck enrolled at the

, 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 is a Federally funded research and development centers, federally funded research and development center in Lemont, Illinois, Lemont, Illinois, United States. Founded in 1946, the laboratory is owned by the United Sta ...

. 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 The Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging (SNMMI), formerly the Society of Nuclear Medicine, is a nonprofit scientific and professional organization that promotes the science, technology and practical application of nuclear medicine a ...

and the

International Atomic Energy Agency The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is an intergovernmental organization that seeks to promote the peaceful use of nuclear technology, nuclear energy and to inhibit its use for any military purpose, including nuclear weapons. It was ...

Personal life

Beck's father Otto Beck was a Texas German. The family had a long history in San Angelo and Fredericksburg. He had two sisters, Mary Ann and Dorothy. Beck's mother was a member of the

Comanche The Comanche (), or Nʉmʉnʉʉ (, 'the people'), are a Tribe (Native American), Native American tribe from the Great Plains, Southern Plains of the present-day United States. Comanche people today belong to the List of federally recognized tri ...

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 The National Museum of the American Indian is a museum in the United States devoted to the culture of the Indigenous peoples of the Americas. It is part of the Smithsonian Institution group of museums and research centers. The museum has three ...

. 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 A myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) is one of a group of cancers in which blood cells in the bone marrow do not mature, and as a result, do not develop into healthy blood cells. Early on, no symptoms typically are seen. Later, symptoms may includ ...

, a form of

leukemia Leukemia ( also spelled leukaemia; pronounced ) is a group of blood cancers that usually begin in the bone marrow and produce high numbers of abnormal blood cells. These blood cells are not fully developed and are called ''blasts'' or '' ...

References

External links

Obituary
at the

Chicago Sun-Times The ''Chicago Sun-Times'' is a daily nonprofit newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Since 2022, it is the flagship paper of Chicago Public Media, and has long held the second largest circulation among Chicago newspaper ...

1928 births 2008 deaths Deaths from myelodysplastic syndrome Angelo State University alumni University of Chicago alumni People from San Angelo, Texas Deaths from leukemia in Illinois American scientists United States Navy sailors American people of German descent {{US-scientist-stub