Honorary Membership

In recognition of his outstanding, internationally-recognised achievements and leadership in the fields of radiology,government relations, and quality and safety, Professor James P. Borgstede of Colorado Springs, United States,will receive ESR Honorary Membership at ECR 2021.

Professor James P. Borgstede is Professor and Vice Chairman of Radiology at the University of Colorado. His administrative responsibilities at the University of Colorado include clinical operations, departmental quality, safety, professional billing, coding, compliance, and human resources. As Vice Chairman, he is a member on the School of Medicine Clinical Leadership Council and his responsibilities with University of Colorado Medicine, Inc. (CU Medicine) include contract negotiations and membership on the Compliance Committee.

Professor Borgstede obtained his medical degree from the University of Illinois in 1974. He trained as a radiology resident at the University of Colorado Health Science Center (1975-1978), becoming the Chief Resident in Radiology in 1978, the same year he was certified by the American Board of Radiology. He was a member of a private radiology practice for 27 years in Colorado Springs where he also served as president. He left this practice in 2007 for a fellowship and research in Magnetic Resonance Imaging at the University of California at San Diego.

Professor Borgstede has a particular interest in international radiology services. He has arranged and performed two international service projects, one of which was at Silliman University Medical Center in Dumaguete City, Negros Oriental, in the Philippines, where he and his family purchased and delivered diagnostic medical sonographic equipment and trained local personnel in its use. The second project was in Enongal Hospital, Ebolowa, Cameroon, and again focused on ultrasound. He was also responsible for starting the American College of Radiology Committee on International Service and has performed working visits to Grace Children's Hospital, Port au Prince, in Haiti.

Throughout his career, Professor Borgstede has served in many radiological roles including Chair of the Research Subcommittee of the AMA Relative Value Update Committee (RUC), Past President of the American Board of Radiology, Past President and Past Chairman of the Board of the American College of Radiology (ACR), member and Chair of the Radiological Society of North America's Research and Education Foundation Board of Trustees, Past President of the International Society of Radiology, Past President of the Colorado Physician Health Program (CPHP), the Colorado peer assistance program for physicians, and Past President of the Colorado State Board of Medical Examiners, acting as a member for eight years and president for five, completing his term in 2001.

He was the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) Board Liaison for International Affairs (2013-2017) and he is the current President of the Board of Directors of the RSNA.

In acknowledgement of his contribution to radiology, Professor Borgstede was awarded the Gold Medal of the American College of Radiology in 2009, the first Gold Medal of the Colorado Radiological Society in 2012, and the President's Award for Leadership from the University of Colorado Hospital in 2014.

In 2019, he was honored with the Presidential Citation for Meritorious Service Award “In Recognition of Your Outstanding Contribution to the Organizational Performance Improvement, Patient Safety, and Clinical Outcomes and Your Enduring Commitment and Vision” by the University of Colorado Hospital, and was awarded the Honored Educator Award by the Radiological Society of North America.

Professor Borgstede's research is in the areas of socioeconomics, government relations, quality, and safety. He has delivered more than 120 lectures on these topics nationally and internationally.

Honorary Membership

In recognition of her outstanding, internationally-recognised achievements and leadership in the fields of paediatric and oncological radiology, Professor Pek-Lan Khong of Hong Kong, China,will receive ESR Honorary Membership at ECR 2021.

Professor Pek-Lan Khong has been Clinical Professor of Radiology and the Head of the Department of Diagnostic Radiology, Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine, at the University of Hong Kong since 2008. She serves as Honorary Consultant Radiologist at Queen Mary Hospital and the Hong Kong Children’s Hospital.

Professor Khong received her medical degree from the National University of Singapore, then went on to obtain specialist degrees in Radiology in Hong Kong (FHKCR, FHKAM) and the United Kingdom (FRCR). She then completed a post-graduate Doctor of Medicine degree (MD) from the University of Hong Kong, for which she was awarded the Sir Patrick Manson Gold Medal for outstanding merit for her MD thesis. For her sub-specialty training, she trained in Paediatric Radiology at the Birmingham Children's Hospital, UK, the Boston Children's Hospital, USA, and Hybrid PET-CT in Oncology at the University Hospital Zurich.

She acted as the Chief-of-Service of the Department of Medical Imaging, at the University of Hong Kong-Shenzhen Hospital, China, from the founding of the hospital in 2012 through to 2017, and was Assistant Dean (External Affairs and Fund Raising), Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine, at the University of Hong Kong from 2006 to 2008.

Professor Khong has championed the development and advancement of academic radiology in Hong Kong since joining the University of Hong Kong in 2000, and executed her vision to grow the profile of the department with a focus in molecular and functional imaging, as well as establishing clinical and research molecular imaging facilities in the university. Her research focus is on paediatric neuroradiology, in particular, the paediatric applications of diffusion-weighted and diffusion-tensor MR imaging, and in oncological imaging.

Professor Khong is a fellow of the International Society of Magnetic Resonance in Medicine (ISMRM) and a fellow of the International Cancer Imaging Society (ICIS). She serves in international and regional organisations as a member of the Board of Trustees of the ISMRM, member of the Ad-Hoc committee for women of ISMRM, Executive Board member of the International Society of Strategic Studies in Radiology (IS³R), Board of Directors, Asian Society of Magnetic Resonance in Medicine (ASMRM), and a member of the RSNA Regional Committee for China. From 2009 to 2017, she served in the International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP), committee on Protection in Medicine (Committee 3), and was the co-corresponding author of ICRP Publication 121 on "Radiological Protection in Pediatric Diagnostic and Interventional Radiology".

Professor Khong's published works include more than 200 original articles in international peer-review journals on the topics of paediatric neuroradiology, hybrid-PET imaging in oncology, and radiological protection in medicine. She sits on the review board of multiple national grant funding bodies and lectures locally, regionally, and internationally.

Honorary Membership

In recognition of his outstanding, internationally-recognised achievements and leadership in the fields of molecular imaging and nuclear medicine, Dr Sanjiv Sam Gambhir of Stanford, United States, will posthumously receive ESR Honorary Membership at ECR 2021.

It is with our sincere condolences that we mourn the loss of a remarkable radiologist, researcher, and educator.

Dr Gambhir was born in Ambala, India, in 1962, and immigrated to the United States of America with his family in 1969. He graduated from Arizona State University in 1983 with a Bachelor of Physics and then enrolled in a combined MD/PhD Medical Scientist Training Program at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), receiving a PhD in Biomathematics in 1990 and an MD in 1993.

Dr Gambhir went on to complete an internship in internal medicine and a residency in nuclear medicine at the Center for Health Services. In 1994, Dr Gambhir became Assistant Professor to the Department of Molecular and Medical Pharmacology, Department of Biomathematics, and Director of the Computational and Communication Sciences Division at the Crump Institute for Molecular Imaging. In 2002, he became Vice-Chair of the Department of Molecular and Medical Pharmacology and a year later was appointed Adjunct Professor of the Department of Molecular and Medical Pharmacology and Department of Biomathematics, Crump Institute for Molecular Imaging.

Dr Gambhir became Professor of Radiology and Head of Nuclear Medicine at Stanford in 2003, directing the Molecular Imaging Program at Stanford (MIPS), and eventually accepting the additional role of Professor of the Department of Bioengineering in 2005. In 2009, he became the Virginia and D.K. Ludwig Professor for Clinical Investigation in Cancer Research and Director of the Canary Center at Stanford for Cancer Early Detection. In 2010, he was appointed as affiliated Professor at the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, continuing on to become Chairman of the Department of Radiology, School of Medicine in 2011. In 2016, he established the Precision Health and Integrated Diagnostics (PHIND) Center, serving as its director.

Dr Gambhir’s primary professional focus was molecular imaging with a particular interest in cancer imaging and diagnostics, and he was a strong advocator for precision health. His research provided many valuable contributions to the areas of immunology and the early detection and imaging of cancer.

Throughout his illustrious career, he held positions in many significant medical societies including the Society of Nuclear Medicine (SNM), Radiological Society of Northern America (RSNA), the American Association of Cancer Researchers (AACR), the World Molecular Imaging Society (WMIS, President 2016-2017), and the International Society for Strategic Studies in Radiology (IS3R, President 2017-2019), and was a member of the Institute of Medicine (IOM) of the US National Academies and a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Sciences (AAAS).

Dr Gambhir served on the editorial board of Nano Letters, Nature Clinical Practice Oncology, and Science Translational Medicine, founded several biotechnology spin-off companies, and acted as a scientific advisor for several organisations. He published more than 680 papers, created over 40 patent applications, and received innumerable honours and awards for his remarkable contributions to radiology, molecular imaging, and nuclear medicine.

Gold Medallist

In recognition of her outstanding, internationally-recognised achievements and leadership in the areas of oncology and breast imaging, Professor Fiona Gilbert of Cambridge, United Kingdom, will receive the ESR Gold Medal at ECR 2021.

Professor Gilbert is Head of the Department of Radiology at the University of Cambridge.

Graduating at the University of Glasgow, followed by clinical training in Aberdeen, she trained in Radiology at the University of Aberdeen and was appointed Chair of Radiology in Aberdeen in 1996. She built the department there and became lead of the Aberdeen Biomedical Imaging Centre, eventually moving to the Chair of Radiology in Cambridge in 2011.

Having initially been appointed as an NHS consultant to set up and run the breast screening programme in the North-East of Scotland, she became fascinated with the challenges of research in this area. Professor Gilbert's clinical work and research has focused on imaging techniques relating to oncology, in particular, breast cancer. She is interested in multimodal functional imaging with MRI and PET of the tumour environment, using breast cancer as a model and correlating this with the tumour genetic profile. She undertakes research in stratified breast screening using tomosynthesis, whole breast ultrasound, and contrast-enhanced mammography and MRI. She maintains a strong interest in musculoskeletal imaging and has been developing MR biomarkers for osteoarthritis. Having undertaken large trials evaluating CAD in mammography, she is now working on developing and evaluating artificial intelligence in radiology.

Since 2012, Professor Gilbert has been awarded fifteen competitive grants worth over £25M. She has over 220 peer reviewed publications and 10 book chapters, and is a regular speaker at international Radiology conferences including RSNA and the ESR, and was given National Institute of Health Research Senior Investigator status in 2016.

She has supervised 15 PhD students, mentored numerous trainee radiologists, and was President of the medical student society in Aberdeen. She actively supports women in Radiology and has sat on the HR committee and promotions subcommittee at the University of Cambridge, advocating equality and diversity.

She is past chairman of the Royal College of Radiologists Research committee, past chair of the National Cancer research Institute imaging committee, President of the European Society of Breast Imaging, and board member of the International Society of Strategic Studies in Radiology. She is programme chair for breast imaging for the annual scientific meeting of RSNA and was given honorary fellowship of RSNA in 2019.

Married with three adult children, she now has time to sail and ski and occasionally play golf. Following a game of golf with her mother several years ago, she was given the advice of "not to give up the day job"! She loves the theatre, opera, and classical music, and is a past board member of the Royal Scottish National Orchestra.

Gold Medallist

In recognition of his outstanding, internationally-recognised achievements and leadership in the fields of radiodiagnostics and breast imaging, Professor Francesco Sardanelli of San Donato Milanese, Italy, will receive the ESR Gold Medal at ECR 2021.

Professor Francesco Sardanelli graduated in Medicine magna cum laude in 1982 and certified in Radiodiagnostics magna cum laude in 1986 at the University of Genoa.

He began his career as a staff radiologist in the Department of Radiology at the San Martino Hospital, Genoa, and in 1992 became Adjunct Professor of the postgraduate course in Radiodiagnostics at the University of Genoa. From 1999 to 2001, he was Director of the Department of Radiology at the Biomedical Institute in Genoa and from 2001 was the Director of the Department of Radiology at the research hospital (IRCCS) Policlinico San Donato in San Donato Milanese, Milan.

He served as Adjunct Professor at the postgraduate course in Radiodiagnostics at the University of Milan (2002-2005) and in 2006 was appointed as Associate Professor of Radiology while also acting as Director of the postgraduate course in Nuclear Medicine (2008 to 2010).

In 2015, he became a full professor of Radiology at the University of Milan and was elected as Director of the postgraduate course in Radiodiagnostics.

Professor Sardanelli has served as editorial board member across many publications such as European Radiology (2002-2006, 2012-2016), La Radiologia Medica (2005-2016), The Breast (2007-today), The American Journal of Roentgenology (2009-2020), Insights into Imaging (2012-2016), and Clinical and Translational Imaging (2014-2018), has acted as a reviewer for over 60 medical journals, and in 2016 was appointed as Editor-in-Chief of European Radiology Experimental by the European Society of Radiology (ESR).

He has also held many roles across radiological and medical societies including ESR Research Committee member (2006-2010, 2012-2015), member of the National Council of the Italian Society of Medical Radiology (SIRM) (2007-2010), Director of European Network Assessment of Imaging in Medicine (EuroAIM) (2009-today), co-founder and Executive Committee member of Breast Centres Certification (2010-today), President of the European Society of Breast Imaging (2012-2015), Executive Committee member of the European Society of Breast Cancer Specialists (EUSOMA) (2020-today), Vice President of the Quality Assurance Group, European Commission Initiative on Breast Cancer (2015-today), member of the Smith Kline Foundation, Italian group "Artificial Intelligence, healthcare biomedical research" (2019-today), and, most recently, member of the external review group of the World Health Organization Rapid Advice Guide on radiological imaging in COVID-19 management (2020).

Professor Sardanelli has held over 600 talks at medical meetings, authored eight books, 56 book chapters, and over 500 full articles, and also holds honorary memberships at the Royal College of Breast Radiologists, United Kingdom (2009), and the Iranian Society Radiology (2014).

Gold Medallist

In recognition of his outstanding, internationally-recognised achievements and leadership in the areas of neuroradiology and artificial intelligence, Professor Paul Maria Parizel of Perth, Western Australia, will receive the ESR Gold Medal at ECR 2021.

Professor Parizel is the inaugural David Hartley Chair of Radiology at the University of Western Australia (UWA) and Royal Perth Hospital (RPH) and the Director of the Western Australian National Imaging Facility (NIF) node.

Graduating from the University of Antwerp, Belgium, he trained in radiology at his alma mater, with subsequent fellowships in neuroradiology at Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, and Hôpital Erasme, University of Brussels. He initiated the division of neuroradiology at Antwerp University Hospital. In 1994, he obtained his PhD with a doctoral dissertation on the influence of field strength on magnetic resonance imaging and was the recipient of a fundamental clinical research grant from the Foundation for Scientific Research in Belgium.

From 2003 to 2019, Professor Parizel was Professor and Chair of Radiology at Antwerp University Hospital and tenured full Professor of Radiology in the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, University of Antwerp.  He was a member of the Board of Trustees of the University of Antwerp, representing the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, and is currently a member of the Academic Board of the University of Western Australia and the Clinical Staff Association at Royal Perth Hospital.

Throughout his career, Professor Parizel has always been interested in integrating scientific research with patient-oriented clinical applications, focusing on neuroradiology and MRI. He also maintains a strong interest in developing and evaluating artificial intelligence in radiology and serves on medical advisory panels of several companies.

Professor Parizel has authored or co-authored over 450 peer-reviewed scientific papers and more than 40 book chapters, with an h-index of 63 (Google Scholar). He has been editor or co-editor of several books and has been awarded competitive research grants in Europe and Australia. He is a regular speaker at international radiology conferences across the world and a frequent lecturer in courses and symposia. He has successfully supervised 22 PhD students and mentored numerous trainee radiologists at Antwerp University Hospital and, recently, at Royal Perth Hospital.

Professor Parizel has served as President of the European Congress of Radiology (ECR), Chairman of the Board of Directors of the European Society of Radiology (ESR), President of European Society of Neuroradiology (ESNR), and President of the Royal Belgian Radiological Society (RBRS). He has been awarded Honorary Membership of the RSNA, ASNR, ESNR, and RANZCR. Moreover, he is an honorary member of the national radiology societies of Russia, Serbia, Romania, Spain, Greece, France, Israel, Algeria, Switzerland, Cuba, Italy, Peru, and Brazil.

Professor Parizel’s son, Maxim, graduated magna cum laude from the University of Antwerp as a medical doctor and works as a board-certified anatomical pathologist in Belgium.

Since 2019, Professor Parizel has worked in Perth, Western Australia, and lives in a house between the Swan River and the Indian Ocean, where he likes to spend time relaxing on the beach. He loves reading (especially military history), travelling to unusual places, classical music, and ballet, and is a member of the Director’s Circle of the Western Australian Ballet Company.

Plenary Lecturer

Professor Josef Martin Penninger from Vancouver, Canada, will present the Plenary Lecture titled ‘ACE2 – a rationale front line therapy for COVID-19’ at ECR 2021.

Professor Josef Martin Penninger is a world-renowned geneticist, the Canada 150 Research Chair in Functional Genetics. and currently the Director of the Life Sciences Institute (LSI) at the University of British Columbia.

Professor Penninger was born in Gurten, Austria, and studied medicine at the University of Innsbruck in Austria. From 1990 to 1994 he worked as a post-doctoral fellow at the Ontario Cancer Institute. He then transitioned to the Department of Immunology and Medical Biophysics at the University of Toronto where he worked until 2002. As Principal Investigator of Amgen, his independent lab contributed to the development of the antibody Denosumab for bone loss and also found the first connection for RANKL to mammary gland development in pregnancy and breast cancer.

In 2002, he moved to Vienna, Austria, to start and develop the Institute of Molecular Biotechnology of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (IMBA), which has since become one of the prime research centres in the world. He endeavours to recreate this environment at the LSI and to nurture and train the best and brightest young minds of UBC scholars.

Professor Penninger’s significant accomplishments include pioneering insights into the molecular basis of osteoporosis and breast cancer, and demonstrating the critical role of ACE2 as the cellular receptor for the SARS Coronavirus infections and linking ACE2 to lung failure in these cases.

He has received numerous awards including the Wittgenstein Prize of the Austrian Federal Government, the Descartes Prize for Research, the Ernst Jung Prize for Medical Excellence, the Innovator Award of the US Department of Defense, and the Austrian Cross of Honor for Science and Art First Class.

He has published extensively in several multidisciplinary scientific journals, with over 60 publications in Cell, Nature, and Science.

Plenary Lecturer

Thomas Bubendorfer from Monte Carlo, Monaco, famed mountaineer and public speaker, will present the Plenary Lecture titled ‘How to live well and thrive on performance’ at ECR 2021.

When only 16, Thomas became the youngest ever climber in history to 'free solo' the most difficult – and deadly – rock faces of his time. At age 20, he single-handedly revolutionised extreme mountaineering by solo climbing the highest and hardest mountain faces in the Alps – without a rope. And he did so at unprecedented, breath-taking speed. Many of his solo-climbing feats remain unparalleled to this day.

While mountaineering remains the most visible and influential activity in his life, Thomas, now 58, has always been more than a climber. From an early age, he sought to find a counterbalance to his intense physical activity – training up to 400 hours per year, climbing 100 days per year – by training his mind. He speaks four languages and has written seven books, his most recent having become a bestseller in China. The subjects he studies range from chaos theory to neurobiology, brain science to evolution theory, and from philosophy to history.

An international keynote speaker since 1985, Thomas has aired and shared his views on performance, self-responsibility, goal setting, quality, crisis, and teamwork. His doctrine around intelligent performance – how to burn bright without burning out! – has drawn A-list business audiences from across many of the world's leading companies.

Co-founder of the Intelligent Peak Performer® principle, he provides crucial guidance for chronically over-stressed business executives on how to fulfil their potential and avoid burn-out by intelligently and methodically taking care of their bodies.

Thomas is presently working on his first book in English and a 90-minute biopic documenting his life to date. The high point of this documentary will be Thomas' upcoming attempt to complete the first ascent – climbing solo – of the as-yet-unconquered 10,000 ft. east face of Alaska's Mount McKinley, a peak which towers 20,310 feet high and is the third most isolated on Earth. The cinematic release is planned for early 2022.

Thomas is the father of three children and has lived in Monte Carlo since 1985.

Plenary Lecturer

Professor Hedvig Hricak from New York, United States, will present the Plenary Lecture titled ‘A global perspective on oncologic imaging: why should we care?’ at ECR 2021.

Professor Hedvig Hricak, MD, PhD, Drhc^m is Chair of the Department of Radiology, Memorial Sloan Kettering, a member of the Molecular Pharmacology and Chemistry Program, Sloan Kettering Institute, and Professor of the Gerstner Sloan Kettering Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences.

The hallmark of her research career has been the development, validation, and dissemination of new diagnostic imaging techniques, particularly for oncology. She is actively engaged in the dissemination of evidence-based uses of cancer imaging and in promoting national and international education in oncologic imaging.

To support these aims and represent her specialty of radiology, Professor Hricak has served or is currently serving  on a number of national and international advisory boards and councils, including the National Institutes of Health Board of Scientific Counselors, the Scientific Advisory Board of the National Cancer Institute, the Advisory Council of the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering, the Nuclear and Radiation Studies Board, National Academy of Sciences, the External Advisory Board, Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center, Johns Hopkins, the International Advisory Board, University of Vienna, Austria, and the Scientific Committee, German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), Germany, among others. She is also a member of the National Academy of Medicine (formerly the Institute of Medicine).

For her research accomplishments and her efforts to promote national and international education and collaboration in oncologic imaging, Professor Hricak has won numerous awards, including the David Rall Medal for Distinguished Leadership, National Academy of Medicine, five gold medals including a gold medal from the European Society of Radiology, Radiological Society of North American, Asian Oceanian Society of Radiology, and other prominent societies, and honorary memberships or fellowships in 22 international radiological societies.

Professor Hricak is a “foreign” member of both the Russian Academy of Sciences and the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts, and she holds honorary doctorates from the Ludwig Maximilian University, Munich, and the University of Toulouse III, Paul Sabatier, Toulouse, France.

Plenary Lecturer

Mr. Kieran Murphy will present the Plenary Lecture titled ‘Shaping the future of healthcare in the COVID-19 era: partnering with you for intelligent efficiency’ at ECR 2021.

Kieran Murphy is President and CEO of GE Healthcare, a $17 billion medical technology and digital solutions innovator that enables clinicians to make faster, more informed decisions through intelligent devices, data analytics, applications and services, supported by its Edison intelligence platform.

Mr. Murphy was previously President and CEO of GE Healthcare Life Sciences, a $5 billion molecular medicine business providing a broad range of technologies for drug discovery, development, and biopharmaceutical manufacturing, as well as molecular tools for diagnostics, therapy selection, and treatment monitoring.