Richard Laforest, PhD

Richard Laforest, PhD, is a professor of radiology and principal investigator within the Precision Radiotheranostics Research Center at WashU Medicine’s Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology (MIR). As leader of the Laforest Lab, he leverages quantitative nuclear medicine and PET methods using multimodality SPECT/CT, PET/CT and PET/MRI for the study of various diseases related to inflammation, oncology and cardiology.

Laforest is a member of several professional organizations, including the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging (SNMMI) and the American Association of Physicists in Medicine. In 2023, the Academy for Radiology and Biomedical Imaging Research honored him with the Distinguished Investigator Award to celebrate his achievements in the field of imaging research. Laforest served as president (2023-2026) and vice president (2021-2023) of the American Board of Science in Nuclear Medicine, after serving on its board of directors (2019-2021). He also served as President (2019-2020) and Vice President (2018-2019) of the SNMMI Physics, Instrumentation & Data Science Council. He has published more than 190 peer-reviewed papers as well as several book chapters and review articles.

Laforest earned a bachelor’s degree in physics, a master’s degree in experimental nuclear physics and a doctorate in experimental nuclear physics — all from Laval University in Quebec. He joined the MIR faculty in 2000.