Albert Goldstein, Ph.D., associate professor of the Wayne State School of Medicine’s Diagnostic Radiology Department, has received the 2008 Joseph H. Holmes Basic Science Pioneer Award from the American Institute of Ultrasound in Medicine.

Dr. Goldstein, who has been with the School of Medicine since 1985, was recognized for his body of work in the field of ultrasound imaging. The award honors an individual who has significantly contributed to the growth and development of diagnostic ultrasound.

His work in ultrasound imaging began at the University of Kansas Medical Center in 1972. He was one of the first to lecture to medical audiences on the physics of ultrasound imaging. He led the development of one of the first digital scan converters in ultrasound in a feasibility study sponsored by a U.S. National Science Foundation grant. Soon after this work, all ultrasound scanners became digitized.

“When I started my first academic appointment as a medical physicist in a radiology department ultrasound imaging was just beginning to be utilized,” Dr. Goldstein said. “The images were very poor by today's standards, but the potential of being able to image soft tissue structures (not possible before ultrasound) was the driving force behind the development of this new clinical imaging modality. I had some experience with the use of ultrasound technology in solid state physics (my initial training) and jumped at the chance to be on the ground floor of its development in clinical medicine. I was lucky enough to make some important contributions early on and have greatly enjoyed watching ultrasound imaging take its rightful place as an important clinical imaging modality.”

Dr. Goldstein received his bachelor’s degree in physics from the City College of the City University of New York and completed his doctorate in physics, specializing in solid state physics, at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1965. His postdoctoral training in medical physics took place at the City College of the City University of New York and Mt Sinai Hospital. He also completed a preceptor- ship in magnetic resonance imaging at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.

In addition to writing the first AIUM Quality Assurance Manual, he holds two U.S. patents for the Auto Switch Biplane Prostate Probe and the Biplane Probe Including CenterIine Highlighting.

Certified by the American Board of Radiology in diagnostic radiologic physics, he is now researching the effects of diffraction on beam patterns and has published definitive journal articles on steady-state unfocused and focused ultrasound beam patterns. He is an associate editor of the Journal of Ultrasound in Medicine and a member of the editorial board of Ultrasound in Medicine and Biology, and has been an associate editor of the journal Medical Physics.

A senior member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Dr. Goldstein is also a fellow of the American Association of Physicists in Medicine, the American College of Radiology and the AIUM. He has served on the AIUM's Board of Governors and as chair of the Basic Science and Instrumentation Section.