50 Roderic Ivan Pettigrew

Roderic Ivan Pettigrew

Time period:

1950’s- present

Subject:

Physics, engineering, and biology

Biography:

Dr. Roderic Ivan Pettigrew was born sometime in the 1950’s in Georgia (USA), and spent his adolescence in Albany, GA in the 1960’s. Pettigrew’s education was in a segregated school system. He finished 11th grade and prior to graduating he obtained an early admission scholarship from Charles E. Merril Jr., and attended Morehouse College in Atlanta, GA. He majored in physics and received a Bachelor of Science degree in physics in 1972. The following year, Pettigrew attended the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and received a Master of Science degree in nuclear science and engineering.

Pettigrew then pursued a unique research program that involved the application of nuclear engineering to various medical problems at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and completed the program in 1977 receiving a Ph.D. for his work. He was accepted into an accelerated program offered to Ph.D. holders at the Miller School of Medicine (University of Miami), in which he received his M.D. in 1979. He completed his medical residency in internal medicine in 1983 at Emory University hospitals, along with completing a residency in nuclear medicine at the University of California (San Diego). During this time, he began to research and work on single-photon emission computed tomography and began developing ways to image the cardiac system in a non-invasive way.

In 2002, he was named as the founding Director of the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and remained in this position until 2017. Currently, he has received around 16 awards for his dedication and his research in bioengineering and medical imaging.

Summary of their contributions:

Pettigrew held a position as a clinical research scientist with Picker International, Inc., in which he began the development of a cardiac specific nuclear magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). He continued to work on these scanners and develop them further throughout the 1980’s and pushed for these non-invasive approaches when it came to cardiovascular imaging for patients.

He was appointed a professorship at the Emory University School of Medicine in 1990 (Department of Cardiology), in which he was the director of the Emory Centre for Magnetic Resonance Research, and at the Georgia Institute of Technology (Department of Bioengineering). His research has focused on the application of MRI systems in diagnosing a variety of cardiac disorders and abnormalities, visualizing the major arteries and veins, and quantifying heart function (blood flow, valve function, heart wall function).

Integration with the BC Secondary Science Curriculum:

Pettigrew contributed immensely to the medical, physics, and engineering fields with the development MRI technologies capable of viewing and deciphering even the most minuscule abnormalities in cardiac patients. There are many areas in the BC curriculum in which his work could be incorporated into:

Science 8 and 10: Topics that are related to physics and technology could be incorporated from the science curriculum. Students could explore the various types of radiation, and how nuclear technologies have advanced certain medical procedures.

Anatomy and Physiology 12: Topics that are related to the human body’s organ systems, such as the cardiac / circulatory system could be incorporated from the curriculum. Students could explore the structure of the circulatory system, the connectivity of this system, and make connections to the importance of MRIs in general.

Pettigrew’s contributions to science could also be applicable and incorporated into some of thew curricular competencies:

Planning and Conducting: Pettigrew’s work continues to emphasize the importance of assessing risks and addressing ethical concerns around procedures being offered to patients, along with choosing the appropriate equipment and technology to collect as accurate data as possible.

Applying and Innovating: Pettigrew’s work was a contribution to optimize the care being offered to cardiac patients and was done so in a collaborative manner. Being the director of the NIBIB for 15 years, he was able to transfer his knowledge to others and continually generate new and refined ideas.

References:

Dr. Roderic Ivan Pettigrew. (2023). NAE Website.

            https://www.nae.edu/216173/Dr-Roderic-Ivan-Pettigrew

Roderic I. Pettigrew – society for science. (2023, June 23). Society for Science.

            https://www.societyforscience.org/people/roderic-i-pettigrew/

Roderic Ivan Pettigrew. (2023, January 24). Allen Institute. https://alleninstitute.org/person/roderic-ivan-pettigrew/

Roderic Pettigrew, PhD, MD – expert in innovation. (n.d.). Health.tamu.edu.

            https://health.tamu.edu/experts/roderic-pettigrew.html