Technologists Special Interest Group International Relations Committee Quality and Technical Standards Committee

Honorary Life Member

Vijay Kumar

ANZSNM Honorary Life Membership

Professor Vijay Kumar has been endorsed for the award of Honorary Life Membership of the ANZSNM in 2020 for his excellent contribution to the Society and profession over a span of four decades. He has a well-earned reputation in the Australasian and international Nuclear Medicine community. He had humble beginnings in Australia as the proud recipient of a Commonwealth Scholarship in June 1974 to pursue a PhD at the Australian National University, Canberra. He describes it as the “game-changer” in his life, which motivated him to be determined to do his best in the new country to make it all “worth-while” after leaving behind the loved ones, family and friends in India.

Vijay came to this country full of determination and commitment to succeed. He faced many challenges and hurdles in the long walk of four decades but he said he was very fortunate to get the professional support from key people when it really mattered.

After completing his PhD in 1977, he worked briefly as Tutor in Biochemistry at UNSW and as Research Officer at St. Vincent’s Hospital (1977-79). He then entered Nuclear Medicine at the Liverpool Hospital in Sydney in 1979. Currently he is the Principal Scientist and head of Radiopharmaceutical Research at Westmead Hospital and The Children’s Hospital at Westmead. He is also Clinical Professor in the Discipline of Adolescent and Child Health, Sydney Medical School, University of Sydney.

CONTRIBUTION IN THE FIELD OF NUCLEAR MEDICINE FOR OVER 40 YEARS

Vijay started by establishing RIA laboratories and in-house manufacturing of cold-kits at Liverpool Hospital. He was instrumental in initiating these facilities as there was no Radiopharmacy division at Liverpool Hospital before he arrived. He then joined Westmead Hospital and The Children’s Hospital at Westmead in 1996. He played a central role in establishing Radiopharmacy services, and Ga68 & F18 labelled PET radiopharmaceutical production for imaging dopamine transporter and various cancers. Recently, he has also introduced Lu-177 labelled PSMA & DOTATATE for treating the patients with neuroendocrine tumours and prostate cancers. He developed many research projects and new radiopharmaceuticals for imaging infection, arthritis and oncology. He is particularly known for his enthusiastic adoption and promotion of the Ge68/Ga68 generator, realising early on how pivotal this device would be for the field of nuclear medicine. He has several book chapters, peer-reviewed articles, >50 invited lectures at the major forums and >100 abstracts

Honorary Life Member

ANZSNM Honorary Life Membership

of conference presentations. He has supervised PhD (2), MSc (2) and BSC (Hons x 3) students. Vijay was thankful to Dr. David Farlow and Prof. Howman-Giles for their constant support in all his endeavours and particularly for giving professional freedom. He also acknowledged Dilip Boddeti for backing him up alongside his frequent absence from work and his wife Shan for her unconditional support throughout his career.

OTHER AWARDS AND RECOGNITION

Vijay received Australia Day Honours in 2017, as the Member in the General division of “The Order of Australia” (AM) for his significant contribution to Nuclear Medicine, professional organisations and community. He has won the ANSTO award twice (2007 & 2014) and the Life-time achievement award at SNM-India (2012) for his contributions in the advancement of Nuclear Medicine. He has been invited to speak at the monthly seminar series at Harvard Medical School, Molecular Imaging Program at Stanford (MIPS) at Stanford Medical School, and at Medical Grand rounds in MD Anderson Cancer Care centre. He was invited to speak at the Russian Academy of Science (St. Petersburg) and British Nuclear Medicine Society conferences. He has been a regular speaker at all major Nuclear Medicine forums - SNMMI, EANM, WFNMB, ALASBIN and AOFNMB (>50 times) around the globe. He was also a regular visitor to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna, the nuclear arm of the United Nations, for project-based expert missions for many years.

CONTRIBUTIONS TO ANZSNM, WFNMB AND OTHER ORGANISATIONS

Vijay has contributed to ANZSNM in various capacities over a span of more than 20 years. He was the President of the ANZSNM (2014- 2016), Secretary of IRC (International Relations Committee) (2008-2019), Chair of Radiopharmacy SIG (Special Interest Group) (1997-2000), Member of Scientific Advisory Panel (SAP) (2013- 2019), LOC (Local Organising Committee) member for ANZSNM Conference in Darwin, and ANSTOANZSNM Grant convenor from 2013 to 2019. He also chaired many sessions for ANZSNM.

Vijay has been actively engaged with these ANZSNM activities for many years, which gave him the opportunity to serve as the Secretary of WFNMB Bid Committee for 8 years (2006- 14) and played a significant role in successfully winning the bid and the right to host the World Congress of Nuclear Medicine & Biology (WFNMB) (2018) in Australia - with Andrew Scott and Peter Collins as the Chairs of the bid committee. He then became the Governing council member of WFNMB and served as the Treasurer and Organising Committee member for the WFNMB conference in Melbourne in 2018, with Andrew Scott, Dale Bailey and Sze Ting Lee.

Vijay has served at the Board of Directors of ISORBE (International Society for Radiolabelled Blood Elements) since 2007. ISORBE’s major focus is in developing labelled cells (Leukocytes) and Radiopharmaceuticals for infection imaging and making the technology available to the developing nations. He has actively participated in many conferences on behalf of ISORBE in Latin American countries and Asia. He is also a member of Board of Directors at AOFNMB since 2019. He also served as the Governing Council member of WFNMB (2014- 18).

1

4

2

3

5

6

7

Honorary Life Member

ANZSNM Honorary Life Membership

ASSOCIATION WITH IAEA AND NUCLEAR MEDICINE IN GENERAL

Vijay has been involved with numerous nuclear medicine committees and represented various professional organisations and has driven local and international projects. He was closely associated with IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) activities since 1998. He was invited numerous times as a scientific expert on project based expert missions by IAEA for various projects, and worked Full Time at IAEA in Vienna as Radiopharmaceutical Science Consultant Scientific Expert for nearly one year in 2010 under Special Services Agreement under United Nations.

Vijay has developed some important documents at IAEA as a member of international expert committee e.g., International Radiopharmacopoeal Monographs, Hospital Radiopharmacy etc, during numerous visits to IAEA, Vienna. He served as steering committee member at IAEA on two occasions. He has been invited as a scientific expert on project based expert missions with the IAEA for Regional Development projects in Africa and national project in Iraq. These projects were undertaken to “capacity building” of these developing nations, which includes providing funds to build-up facilities. He was involved in planning Nuclear Medicine department in Baghdad, and establishing hot-lab facilities. He was responsible for recruiting more than a dozen Iraqi Nuclear Medicine personnel for training in various member states including Westmead Hospital. Vijay also offered mentorship to more than 25 IAEA-Fellowship visitors for training in Radiopharmacy at Westmead Hospital & The Children’s Hospital at Westmead over many years.

Vijay has served as a Scientific expert for QUANUM (Quality Management Audits in Nuclear Medicine practices) for ARASIA (Arabic and Asian Member States) region on six different occasions. The audits are focused in providing expert guidelines to the member states to address their limitations and streamline smooth functioning and departmental layouts. He contributed to two CRP (Cooperative Research Projects) at IAEA, over a 6 year period. These CRPs are multi-centre, multinational research projects focused on a particular theme. Usually 15-20 member states participate on a specific project, and meet at 18 month intervals to develop a document at the end. These documents are available for free on the IAEA website and it is a standard reference document and provides guidelines for member states rather than reinventing the wheel. Vijay has been closely associated with DAT (Distance Assisted Teaching) program, where he contributed in developing a number of Teaching Modules for technologists since 1998.

COMMUNITY SERVICE AND HOBBIES

Vijay has some hidden talents that many of you may not know.

Yes, he is a popular singer of Bollywood songs and has performed as lead singer in many concerts for charities in the 80s and 90s in Sydney. He really loved the role as amateur singer and entertained the audience of full houses for many years. He contributed to Indian community organisations in guiding the young settlers and liaising with the community organisations and the Indian Embassy. His other passion is for “fast cars”, which may surprise many readers. He fondly remembers driving a Lamborghini on Italian freeways and surviving the ordeal.

He also tested the Indy-500 track as the passenger in the racing car with an adrenaline pumping lap. He describes himself as a party animal and loves good food and wine. He loves fancy dress themes at the ANZSNM gala dinner events. He loves travelling overseas to attend conferences and make friends in all walks of life. He always believes “it is better to be worn out than rusted out”.

Honorary Life Member

ANZSNM Honorary Life Membership

ADVICE AND ENCOURAGEMENT TO YOUNG SCIENTISTS

Rewinding the clock 40 years, Vijay recalls - Nuclear Medicine was “Unclear Medicine” then and after 40+ years in the field he proudly says it is now “New and Clear Medicine”. He has seen the changes from whole organ imaging to molecular imaging; from blanket therapy (chemotherapy) to targeted radionuclide therapy; from rectilinear scanning to hybrid imaging (PET/CT & PET/MR) and many more.

Vijay stated “he is not going to give career advice but at the ripe old age of 70 he wanted to share a few lessons that he learnt and cherished over the years”. Vijay advocates passionate micro-ambitious dreams to the pursuit of short-term goals rather than earth-shattering “mega-dreams”. He advises early careerists to “Put your head down and work with pride on whatever is in front of you. You never know where you might end up. Remember you can’t truly take credit for all your successes, nor truly blame others for failures, as you are incalculably lucky to be where you are”. Life will sometimes seem long and tough. There is only one sensible thing to do with this potentially empty existence – so fill it by learning as much as you can and about as much as you can. Take pride in whatever you are doing, have compassion, share ideas and be enthusiastic in all walks of life. “LIFE is an incredibly exciting thing. Live it up!!!”

ANZSNM greatly appreciates the contributions by Professor Vijay Kumar, in his career spanning well over 40+ years and is delighted to confer the prestigious Honorary Life Member of the Society. I wish him well in all his future endeavours personally by myself and on behalf of the Society.

Dale Bailey - MANZSNM Chair, Scientific Advisory Panel