image: Julie C. Price, PhD, FSNMMI, receives SNMMI 2025 Paul C. Aebersold Award for Outstanding Achievement in Basic Nuclear Medicine Science.
Credit: Image courtesy of SNMMI.
NEW ORLEANS (June 22, 2025)—Julie Price, PhD, FSNMMI, has been named the 2025 recipient of the prestigious Paul C. Aebersold Award. Price is an investigator at Massachusetts General Hospital in the Department of Radiology, a Professor of Radiology at Harvard Medical School, and Director of PET Pharmacokinetic Modeling at the Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging in Boston, Massachusetts. The award was announced by the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging (SNMMI) during its 2025 Annual Meeting.
For more than three decades, Price has been a leader in the in vivo imaging of ligand-protein binding interactions in studies of healthy brain function, aging, neuropsychiatric disorders, and neurodegeneration. She helped to establish PiB PET for the imaging of brain amyloid deposition in Alzheimer’s disease, spurring critical dementia research. Currently, Price’s work focuses on improving early detection of Alzheimer’s disease-related tau protein deposition, as she continues efforts to advance PET imaging techniques and use of multimodal imaging for translational neuroscience.
“I’m honored to be recognized by the nuclear medicine and molecular imaging community as the recipient of the 2025 SNMMI Aebersold Award,” said Price. “Being on the cusp of new advances in PET imaging research and helping to bring science closer to impacting patient lives has been an extremely rewarding experience—one that would not have been possible without the support of exceptional colleagues and mentors that I have had the privilege to work with, as well as the essential support of my spouse along the way.”
Price received a bachelor of science degree in physics in 1982 and a master’s degree in medical physics in 1985 from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She was awarded her doctoral degree from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1992 and completed her postdoctoral work at the National Institutes of Health in the PET/Nuclear Medicine Department. Price joined the University of Pittsburgh Department of Radiology in 1994 as an Assistant Professor and PET physicist, later becoming professor of radiology and biostatistics and head of PET methodology. In 2016, Price moved to Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, and the Athinoula A. Martinos Center.
An SNMMI member for nearly 40 years, Price has served the organization in many roles, including as a board member of the Brain Imaging Council, board member and secretary of the Computer and Instrumentation Council, and vice-chair of the neurosciences track for the Annual Meeting Program Committee. She presented the Henry N. Wagner, Jr., Neuroscience Highlights lecture at the annual SNMMI meeting from 2020 to 2022.
Outside of SNMMI, Price has served as chair of the NIH Clinical Neuroscience and Neurodegeneration study section and on the Advisory Council to the Director of the NIH Center for Scientific Review, among other national and international advisory roles. She is also a member of the International Society for Cerebral Blood Flow and Metabolism, American College of Neuropsychopharmacology, and International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine.
Price was awarded the SNMMI Kuhl-Lassen Award and was honored as an SNMMI Fellow in 2021. In addition, she was recognized as a Distinguished Investigator of the Academy for Radiology & Biomedical Imaging Research and as Fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering. Price is co-author of more than 200 peer-reviewed research publications.
“It is my pleasure to present the Aebersold award to Julie this year,” noted Munir Ghesani, MD, FACNM, FSNMMI, FACR, chair of the SNMMI Committee on Awards. “Her innovative work has been instrumental in fostering the development of novel methods to improve the early detection of Alzheimer’s disease and has set the stage for the groundbreaking research we see in dementia imaging today.”
The Aebersold Award is named for Paul C. Aebersold—a pioneer in the biologic and medical application of radioactive materials and the first director of the Atomic Energy Commission’s Division of Isotope Development. It recognizes outstanding achievement in basic science applied to nuclear medicine and was first presented in 1973. The SNMMI Committee on Awards selects the recipient.
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About the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging
The Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging (SNMMI) is an international scientific and medical organization dedicated to advancing nuclear medicine, molecular imaging, and theranostics—precision medicine that allows diagnosis and treatment to be tailored to individual patients in order to achieve the best possible outcomes. For more information, visit snmmi.org.