Dr. Richard Leo Wahl stands as a preeminent leader in diagnostic imaging and nuclear medicine, serving as the Elizabeth E. Mallinckrodt Professor and Head of the Department of Radiology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. He also directs the prestigious Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology, a position of significant influence in academic radiology. Dr. Wahl received his medical degree from Washington University School of Medicine in 1978 before completing residency training at the University of Michigan. His distinguished career includes previous leadership roles as Director of the Division of Nuclear Medicine/PET at Johns Hopkins University, where he was honored as the first recipient of the Henry N. Wagner Professorship in Nuclear Medicine.
Dr. Wahl has made seminal contributions to molecular imaging, particularly in the advancement of positron emission tomography and its integration with computed tomography through PET/CT imaging. He pioneered anatometabolic image fusion techniques that combined PET with CT, SPECT, or MRI into hybrid images, revolutionizing cancer visualization and diagnosis. His extensive research in FDG PET imaging for oncology has transformed cancer staging, diagnosis, and treatment response assessment across numerous cancer types. Dr. Wahl also co-invented radioimmunotherapy for lymphoma using anti-CD20 antibodies, which formed the basis for FDA-approved radioimmunotherapies, and developed other FDA-approved medical devices including radionuclide guided biopsy technology.
As a recognized authority in the field, Dr. Wahl was elected president of the Society of Nuclear Medicine, reflecting his leadership and influence across the medical imaging community. He has authored approximately 350 scholarly articles and multiple authoritative textbooks, including one of the earliest comprehensive texts on PET/CT imaging. His numerous professional honors include the Berson and Yalow Award, the Tetalman Award from the Society of Nuclear Medicine, and the Hounsfield Award from the Society of Body CT and MRI. Most recently, Dr. Wahl and his colleagues proposed the PERCIST criteria for PET assessment of cancer treatment response, establishing a standardized framework now used in oncology practice worldwide.
