Dr. Reimund Bayerlein, an Assistant Project Scientist based at the University of California, Davis, has been awarded a second 2-year NIH R03 research grant as Principal Investigator to investigate artifacts caused by artificial intelligence (AI)-based image enhancement tools in positron emission tomography.

SNMMI’s Ones to Watch campaign is a showcase for rising talent in the field, offering a platform to increase recognition for early career professionals within our specialty. As the field continues to expand, a new wave of talent is at the forefront. This is the 8th year of the SNMMI One’s to Watch program. The concept originated from the Early Career Professionals Committee in 2018 and the first group of Ones to Watch were announced in spring 2019.

Dr. Brahim Mehadji received a UC Davis STAIR HEALTH Proof-of-Concept Grant in support of his project, Precision PET Probe: Revolutionizing Minimally Invasive Cancer Surgery. 

Dr. Yansong Zhu has been honored with the First Place PIDSC Young Investigator Award at the 2026 SNMMI Annual Meeting, the premier annual gathering of nuclear medicine and molecular imaging professionals worldwide. Yansong's work, "Super-resolution PET-enabled dual-energy CT imaging with application to different radiotracers," was selected as one of six finalists from a competitive pool of nearly 300 submitted abstracts and ultimately received the top distinction.

The EXPLORER Molecular Imaging Center is proud to celebrate a landmark achievement: Professor Simon R. Cherry has been elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS), one of the most prestigious scientific honors in the world. The announcement was made on May 27, with only 90 scientists across the globe receiving the honor this year.

We are pleased to share that Dr. Siqi Li, Assistant Project Scientist in the lab of Dr. Guobao Wang, has received his first NIH R01 award to develop practicalPET parametric imaging methods for pediatric cancer imaging. The project focuses on advancing dynamic PET imaging techniques that provide more quantitative measures beyond conventional standardized uptake values (SUVs), without requiring lengthy scan times that are impractical for children.

Our own Prof. Simon Cherry will lead the opening ceremony at the SNMMI meeting 2026. Simon will present exciting news in the field in his 15-min keynote lecture right before moderating an engaging panel discussion on Nuclear Medicine Access and Equity, joined by six representatives from both research and industry. One of the panelists will be our colleague Brad Schmidt, CEO of the Northern California PET imaging center, who we share our building with.

PhD candidate Xiaoyu Duan and postdoc Dr. Kevin Chung (now Instructor at MGH) received the Alavi-Mandell Award from the Journal of Nuclear Medicine (JNM) for their JNM papers published in 2025. The award was established by the families of Dr. Abass Alavi, MD and Dr. Gerald Mandell, MD to encourage young physicians and scientists to pursue a career in academic and research in nuclear medicine. Congratulations to both of our young scientists for their excellent contributions to our research field!

The corresponding publications are listed below:

On April 15, the Editorial Board and Scientific Council of Bio-Algorithms and Med-Systems have announced that the Best Scientific Paper Award for 2024 has been presented to the article: “Development of correction techniques for the J-PET scanner” prepared by an international research team led by Manish Das and Reimund Bayerlein, et al. The Best Paper Award initiative was established in 2022 with the goal to recognize the importance of impactful and high-quality scientific contributions.

Dr. Simon R Cherry Distinguished Research Professor of biomedical engineering and radiology at the University of California, Davis, has received the 2026 ESMI Award from the European Society for Molecular Imaging (ESMI). This honor is among the most prestigious handed out in imaging science, celebrating a researcher for outstanding long-term contributions to the field.