ROCHESTER, Minn. -- At Mayo Clinic, the name Clifford Jack Jr., M.D., means cutting-edge imaging and Alzheimer's research. This month, he was honored for his accomplishments in both areas by two different organizations.
VIDEO ALERT: Additional audio and video resources, including excerpts from an interview with Dr. Clifford Jack Jr. are available on the Mayo Clinic News Blog.
MetLife Foundation Award:
Dr. Jack was selected as one of two 2012 recipients of the MetLife Foundation Award for Medical Research in Alzheimer's Disease. Since 1986, this Foundation has presented awards to scientists who make significant contributions to the understanding of Alzheimer's. The program's goal is recognizing the importance of basic research with an emphasis on providing scientists the opportunity to pursue ideas. He received the award May 15 in New York.
International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine Gold Medal Award:
Dr. Jack recently accepted another award -- the 2012 ISMRM Gold Medal Award -- in recognition of his major research contributions to the field of magnetic resonance. Society President Debiao Li, Ph.D., presented the award to Dr. Jack at the organization's annual meeting in Melbourne, Australia, on May 7.
ISMRM is a multidisciplinary nonprofit association that promotes innovation, development, and application of magnetic resonance techniques in medicine and biology throughout the world.
"These are huge honors and pay tribute to Dr. Jack's outstanding impact in this field," says Ron Petersen, M.D., Ph.D., head of Mayo Clinic's Alzheimer's Center. "His work has had a significant impact on the recent revisions of the criteria for Alzheimer's disease."
Dr. Jack is a neuroradiologist and a member of the Department of Radiology at the Mayo Clinic campus in Rochester. He holds the academic rank of professor of radiology and is recognized with a named professorship, the Alexander Family Professor in Alzheimer's Disease Research.
Dr. Jack is a pioneer in developing medical imaging methods that identify biomarkers for Alzheimer's disease. Starting in the early 1990s, he introduced imaging methods to help delineate manifestations of the disease in the brain, assess its severity, measure disease progression and make predictions regarding its future course. Dr. Jack's initial studies focused on a type of brain imaging known as anatomic MRI, but he has also contributed pioneering work in other areas including MR spectroscopy, diffusion imaging, functional MRI, high field microimaging and amyloid PET analyses of amyloid burden.
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