David E. Kuhl

 

Kuhl has
has been referred to as “the father of emission tomography.”.

In the early 1960s, he developed cross-sectional computed tomographic (CT) imaging techniques for nuclear medicine emission tomography that predated x-ray CT scanning and was the forerunner of single-photon emission CT (known as SPECT) and PET scanning. 

https://pubs.rsna.org/doi/full/10.1148/radiol.2017174024

A gifted investigator, Dr Kuhl’s research focused on improved methods of measuring neurochemical and metabolic processes within the living brain and the development of radiopharmaceuticals targeted to the earliest stages of degenerative brain disease. He was a prolific author: He authored 244 scientific publications, 102 book chapters, and two books. He was consistently funded as the principal investigator on grants from the National Institutes of Health. He was a founding member of the American Board of Nuclear Medicine in 1969 and served on its Board of Directors until 1977 when he became a life trustee.

modified Cassen’s device and developed the photoscanner. In his
design, a radioisotope emission-activated glow lamp provided
grayscale images with a greater sensitivity and resolution than ever
before.16 Kuhl developed several SPECT devices known as Mark II, Mark III, and Mark IV in 1964, 1970, and 1976, respectively.

Kuhl improved the machines to measure in 3D physiologic function and
to develop cross-sectional reconstructions. The machines are
considered the forerunners of SPECT, PET, and CT technology.