RSNA Press Release

OAK BROOK, Ill. (March 1, 2007)—The Board of Directors of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) is pleased to announce that Herbert Y. Kressel, M.D., will become editor of the journal Radiology in January 2008.

Dr. Kressel is the Miriam H. Stoneman Professor of Radiology at Harvard Medical School in Boston, a position to which he was appointed in 1993. He is radiologist-in-chief of the Department of Radiology at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, where he also served as president and chief executive officer from 1998 to 2000. In addition, Dr. Kressel serves as chair of the Institutional Participants Committee of the American College of Radiology Imaging Network.

"Radiology has established itself internationally as the premier scientific jounal devoted to imaging," Dr. Kressel said. "Serving as editor is an opportunity to contribute to the radiology profession and to help guide the scientific growth of the imaging sciences globally."

Dr. Kressel made his mark as a diagnostic radiologist in magnetic resonance (MR) imaging of the abdomen and pelvis, with particular interest in imaging of the liver, pancreas, prostate and rectum. He has contributed greatly to the role of imaging in rectal and prostate tumor staging. He holds a U.S. patent for the externally moveable intracavity probe for MR imaging and spectroscopy.

A graduate of Brandeis University in Waltham, Mass., Dr. Kressel earned his medical degree from the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. He completed a medical internship at the University of Washington Hospital in Seattle and a radiology residency at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), where he also completed a National Institutes of Health diagnostic radiology fellowship. Dr. Kressel then accepted a position as clinical instructor at UCSF. He became an assistant professor of radiology at the University of Pennsylvania in 1977 and was promoted to chief of the MR imaging section of the Department of Radiology at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania in 1982. He became a professor of radiology there in 1985.

Dr. Kressel served as an editorial board member of Radiology from 1985 to 1991 and is currently on the editorial board of Magnetic Resonance in Medicine. He was also the editor of Magnetic Resonance Annual and Magnetic Resonance Quarterly. He is the author or coauthor of nearly 200 peer-reviewed scientific reports, books, book chapters and invited papers and has published more than 60 articles in Radiology over the past 30 years.

The recipient of numerous awards and honors, Dr. Kressel has been widely recognized for his academic achievements and MR research. He is the recipient of a silver medal from the International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine, the Sylvia Sorkin Greenfield Award from the American Association of Physicists in Medicine and the Crues-Kressel Award from the International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine. A member of the Alpha Omega Alpha honor society for medical school students, Dr. Kressel received the Herron Award while at the University of Southern California.

An RSNA member since 1977, Dr. Kressel served as a member of the Refresher Course Committee from 1990 to 1993. He has delivered six lectures at RSNA scientific sessions since 1979.

Dr Kressel also has served in many capacities with the American College of Radiology, the American Roentgen Ray Society, the Association of University Radiologists, the Society of Computed Body Tomography, the Society of Gastrointestinal Radiologists and the International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine.

Dr. Kressel plans to continue the outstanding tradition of leadership provided by previous Radiology editors and hopes to enhance the journal’s position in the growing area of Web communications. "The Internet presents a myriad of opportunities for enhanced scientific discourse and education," he said. "I am looking forward to further developing the online journal to meet the needs of readers and authors."

Dr. Kressel will succeed Anthony V. Proto, M.D., as Radiology editor. Dr. Proto has served the journal since 1998 and will retire as editor at the end of this year.

Radiology is a monthly scientific journal devoted to clinical radiology and allied sciences. The journal is edited by Anthony V. Proto, M.D., School of Medicine, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, Va. Radiology is owned and published by the Radiological Society of North America, Inc. (RSNA.org/radiologyjnl)

The Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) is an association of more than 40,000 radiologists, radiation oncologists, medical physicists and related scientists committed to promoting excellence in radiology through education and by fostering research, with the ultimate goal of improving patient care. The Society is based in Oak Brook, Ill. (RSNA.org)