Paul Christian
Alumni Profile: Paul Christian Physics and a Life in Nuclear Medicine Growing up in Murray, Utah, Paul Christian was inquisitive and had a desire to understand how things worked. “As a kid, I took apart alarm clocks, a toaster, a radio, and other devices,” he said. He also built his own crystal radio and then a transistor radio to understand the latest technology. Christian’s favorite class at the U was the senior physics lab, where he and others performed amazing experiments and had to type up (no PCs back then) a formal report each week. “I learned a lot about experimental design and writing technical reports,” said Christian. He was also the undergraduate physics lab manager and lab-teaching assistant for the department. “It was a good experience,” he said. “I
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had to explain physics to the students, so I really had to understand concepts clearly.” His favorite physics professor was J. Irwin Swigart, who taught at the U from 1931-1987.
Early Days of Nuclear Medicine Upon graduation from the U in 1971, Christian planned to attend graduate school but soon found himself recruited by the University of Utah’s Medical Center to develop the newly formed Division of Nuclear Medicine in Radiology. Nuclear medicine was experiencing rapid growth, with an explosion of other imaging technologies that would soon come into clinical use: ultrasound, CT and MRI.
