October 2016

Gary Jay Becker is the Executive Director of the American Board of Radiology (ABR) in Tucson, Arizona, and a professor in the interventional section of the Department of Radiology at the University of Arizona College of Medicine in Tucson.

Born in 1952 in Chicago, Illinois, he earned his B.A. in Biological Sciences in 1974 and his M.D. in 1977 from the Indiana University School of Medicine in Indianapolis. After an internship in internal medicine and a residency in diagnostic radiology at Indiana University, he joined the faculty in 1981 and rose to the rank of Professor and Chief of the Vascular Section. In 1990, after 20 years at Indiana University, he moved to the Baptist Cardiac & Vascular Institute (BCVI) of Miami as Medical Director of Interventional Radiology. He subsequently assumed the position of Assistant Medical Director of the Institute, and Medical Director of the Research & Outcomes Division.

In 2004 Professor Becker became Branch Chief of Image-Guided Intervention in the Cancer Imaging Program of the National Cancer Institute in Washington, D.C. In 2005 he moved to the University of Arizona College of Medicine in Tucson, where he joined the faculty as a professor in the interventional section of the Department of Radiology. Starting in January 2006, he spent one-third of his time as Associate Executive Director for Diagnostic Radiology and Subspecialties at the American Board of Radiology in Tucson, where he was appointed Executive Director two years later.

An active researcher, he developed new metallic stents for the treatment of coronary, peripheral and carotid arterial disease, a field in which he holds ten patents. He has also been an investigator and principal investigator in numerous clinical trials in the field of vascular and interventional radiology, including much of the early work on transluminal endografts for the treatment of aortic aneurysms and traumatic injury.

He served on the American Heart Association (AHA), the Radiological Society of North America’s (RSNA) Research and Education Foundation, the Office of Research Development of the RSNA, the Research Committee of the Society of Interventional Radiology (SIR), and the Board of Directors of the Cardiovascular & Interventional Radiology Research and Education Foundation (CIRREF; now SIR Foundation), an organisation he served as president of from 1994–1997. He is also the most recent Past President of the RSNA.

Professor Becker has authored or co-authored 207 articles, 36 book chapters and 175 published abstracts. He has delivered more than 300 lectures and scientific presentations, including more than 100 invited lectures in the United States, Europe, Asia, Australia, and Central and South America.

Much of his career has been devoted to teaching medical students, residents and fellows. He served as director of the fellowship training programme in Vascular and Interventional Radiology at BCVI in Miami for ten years and, after stepping down, continued to serve as a full-time faculty member until 2004. He has also served the scientific programmes of the SIR, RSNA, the ARRS, and the AHA in various capacities.

His editorial services as a manuscript reviewer, editorial board member, associate editor, and editor has spanned 22 journals and one website. Until mid-1995 he served as the founding Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Vascular and Interventional Radiology.

A fellow of the SIR, he also served nine years on its Executive Council, including several years as Education Councillor. During that time, he and his training committee drafted the original requirements that were adopted by the residency review committee for accredited training in vascular and interventional radiology. In 1995, in recognition of his devotion to the field and his work at the Journal of Vascular and Interventional Radiology, the SIR re-named its award for the outstanding paper presentation by a young investigator at the Annual Meeting ‘the Dr. Gary J. Becker Young Investigator Award’.

He has been awarded Fellowship of the American College of Cardiology (ACC), the American College of Radiology (ACR), and the Cardiovascular Radiology Council of the AHA, and membership of the Society for Vascular Surgery (SVS) and the Society for Simulation in Healthcare (SSH).

He is married to Patricia G. Becker, M.D., and they have three children.

In recognition of his exceptional achievements in the field of interventional radiology, his outstanding leadership skills and his commitment to teaching, Professor Becker will be awarded Honorary Membership of the European Society of Radiology at ECR 2010.

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