Lee Named RSNA Gold Medalist
Joseph K. T. Lee, MD, professor emeritus of radiology and alumnus of the diagnostic radiology residency at Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology (MIR), has been selected to receive the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) Gold Medal. Awarded annually by the Board of Directors, the gold medal is the society’s highest honor.
A pioneer in the field of body CT and MRI, Lee was the first radiologist to demonstrate the clinical feasibility and utility of proton spectroscopic imaging (Dixon method) for diagnosing geographic fatty infiltration, quantifying hepatic fat fraction and distinguishing focal fatty infiltration from hepatic metastases.
Before completing residency at MIR, Lee earned his medical degree from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. He later joined the faculty and directed magnetic resonance imaging and co-directed computed tomography. He went on to serve as the chair of the Department of Radiology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill from 1991 to 2006.
Lee was the first Asian American to serve as president of the American Roentgen Ray Society and has received the Gold Medal from the Asian Oceanian Society of Radiology, American Roentgen Ray Society and Society of Computed Body Tomography/Magnetic Resonance Imaging. MIR honored Lee as one of the 2022 Evens Society Honorees, which recognizes significant contributions to the advancement of radiology in the areas of patient care, education and research.
