2016 William P. Slichter Award

The team is recognized for partnering with the US positron emission tomography (PET) scanner industry to create and deploy a precision calibration system traceable to national standards, which transforms PET images into a quantitative tool for applications including cancer diagnosis and treatment monitoring. The NIST team developed methods to transfer measurement accuracy from small, precise NIST samples to large, medical-industry “phantoms,” which are produced and sold by a US firm to nearly all PET scanner manufacturers. The phantoms the team helped create are now being shipped with new scanners and to existing customers by GE, Toshiba and Siemens, improving health care for the public and benefiting US industry.