Remebering Dr. Herbert L. Abrams (1920-2016)
January 20, 2016
A campus memorial service and reception will be held at 3:30 p.m. Saturday, March 19, in McCaw Hall at the Arrillaga Alumni Center.
Dear Colleagues and Friends:
It is with great sadness, I announce the death of Dr. Herbert L. Abrams, 95, who passed away this morning in Palo Alto, with family by his side.
Dr. Abrams was an internationally renowned pioneer in radiology. He was Professor and Director of Diagnostic Radiology at Stanford from 1960 to 1967, and was then appointed and served as Philip H. Cook Professor and Chairman of Radiology at Harvard University from 1967 to 1985. He returned to Stanford in 1985 as Professor of Radiology in order to spend most of his time in research. He was currently Professor of Radiology Emeritus here at Stanford.
An internationally known authority on cardiovascular radiology, Dr. Abrams wrote over 190 articles and seven books on cardiovascular disease and health policy, and was founding Editor-in-Chief of the journal Cardiovascular and Interventional Radiology. He served as the Editor-in-Chief of Postgraduate Radiology (1980-1999). He was an Honorary Fellow of the Royal College of Radiology of Great Britain and the Royal College of Surgeons of Ireland. Dr. Abrams was awarded the Gold Medal of the Association of University Radiologists, of the Radiological Society of North America, as well as the 2000 Gold Medal from the Society of Cardiovascular and Interventional Radiology in recognition of his lifetime achievements in cardiovascular radiology.
A member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Science, Dr. Abrams was also founding vice-president of International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, and was recipient of the 1985 Nobel Peace Prize. He served on the National Board of Directors of Physicians for Social Responsibility for 20 years, and was also its National Co-Chairman during the 1980's.
For as long as I have known him, I could only describe Herb Abrams as a class act. He was clearly a gentleman and a scholar. It is upon the shoulders of giants such as Herb that we ourselves stand today at the cutting edge of Radiology.
Sincerely,
Sam Gambhir
Sanjiv Sam Gambhir MD, PhD
Virginia and D. K. Ludwig Professor of Cancer Research
Chair, Department of Radiology
Professor by courtesy, Departments of Bioengineering and Materials Science & Engineering
Director, Molecular Imaging Program at Stanford (MIPS)
Director, Canary Center at Stanford for Cancer Early Detection
Stanford University School of Medicine