EMERITUS
Dr. Tom Ruth
Dr. Tom Ruth, an Emeritus Senior Scientist at TRIUMF, launched the Nuclear Medicine program (Life Sciences) at TRIUMF. He was also elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and has made significant contributions to nuclear medicine and nuclear chemistry during his career. As the Director of the TRIUMF-University of British Columbia PET program, he oversaw the installation of PET scanners at UBC Hospital and the TR-13 cyclotron at TRIUMF. These advancements have played a crucial role in providing key radioisotopes for PET scans, enabling important diagnostic and therapeutic applications in nuclear medicine. Dr. Ruth's expertise and dedication have greatly influenced the field, particularly in the areas of neurological conditions, personalized medicine, and cancer treatment using therapeutic radioisotopes. His work at TRIUMF has left a lasting impact on the advancement of nuclear medicine techniques and research.
Dr. Mike Adam
Dr. Mike Adam has been an active member of the Life Sciences group at TRIUMF for over 35 years and an active participant and collaborator in a number of projects, including recent examples such as: the development of enabling technology for metallic radioisotopes (M Adam PI, funded by the NSERC CRD program); the development of liquid target technology for the production of radiometals on TRIUMF’s TR13 cyclotron (F Bénard PI, funded by CIHR); the development of labeled antisense radiopharmaceuticals (P Schaffer PI, funded by Genome BC). Mike has also been a long-standing contributor to the Pacific Parkinson’s Research Program through his vast experience in C-11 and F-18 radiotracer production, but also through grants to understand the biomolecular origin of Parkinson’s disease as brought about by dysfunction in the dopamine/monoaminergic neurotransmitter system(s).
Dr. Jean-Michel Poutissou
In 2009, Dr. Jean-Michel Poutissou took up heading the Nuclear Medicine Division (Life Sciences) after its creation within TRIUMF. He completed his undergraduate education in France and came to the Université de Montréal to complete his training. Jean-Michel received his Ph.D. in 1972 and continued at the Université de Montréal as a post-doctoral fellow until 1974 when he came to the University of British Columbia for a one-year appointment as a teaching assistant. He returned to the Université de Montréal as a research assistant during the years 1974-78. His first appointment at TRIUMF was in 1978 as a Research Scientist. In 1988 Jean-Michel was appointed Head of the Science Division and Associate Director of TRIUMF.