2018 Seaborg Award: Suresh C. Srivastava

Current position: senior medical scientist emeritus and research adviser in the Collider-Accelerator Department and Medical Isotope Research & Production Program, Brookhaven National Laboratory

Education: B.S., chemistry and biology, Agra University; M.S., organic chemistry, Agra University; Ph.D., nuclear and ­biological chemistry, University of Allahabad

Srivastava on what he is most proud of: “In the late ’70s, I developed the very difficult chemistry behind the medical Tc ‘kits’ (shake and bake), which continue to be used widely for diagnostic medical imaging. This achievement has saved millions of lives and is still going strong. The most common radioisotope used in diagnosis is technetium-99m, with 40–50 million procedures per year, accounting for about 80% of all nuclear medicine procedures worldwide. There are over 20 million nuclear medicine procedures per year in the U.S.”

What his colleagues say: “Srivastava’s contributions to radiochemistry and nuclear medicine, and to radiochemistry education, are outstanding. For three decades he has headed the Medical Isotope Research & Production Program at Brookhaven National Laboratory, where he has been instrumental in the introduction and/or development of many important radionuclides and radiolabeling methodologies.”—Leonard Mausner, Brookhaven National Laboratory (retired)