Regular server | Secure? | Login

Search

The AAPM

• Login
• AAPM
• Public & General
• International
• Medical Physicist
• Members
• Current & Prospective Students
• Meetings
• Education
• Government Affairs
• Publications
• Placement & Committee Ads
• Corporate Affiliates
• Links of Interest
• Advertising Opportunities

DAVID RICHARD PICKENS III

Profession:
Diagnostic medical physicist

Birth:
Nashville, Tennessee
June 6, 1947

Education:
The University of the South, Sewanee, TN, BA, Biology, 1969
Vanderbilt University, BE, Biomedical Engineering, 1971(Cum Laude)
Vanderbilt University, MS, Mechanical Engineering, 1977
Vanderbilt University, PhD, Mechanical Engineering, 1981

Certifications:
American Board of Radiology, Diagnostic Radiological Physics, 1994

Career:
Dr. Pickens was born in Nashville, Tennessee, in 1947.  He attended The University of the South at Sewanee, Tennessee, receiving a BA with a major in biology.  Having always had an interest in electronics and mechanical devices, he began the coursework necessary to do graduate studies in the emerging field of biomedical engineering.  While pursuing a second undergraduate degree in biomedical engineering, he had the good fortune to do a senior research project in the Department of Radiology at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine.  This project in the area of nuclear medicine imaging introduced him to image processing and the use of devices to map the distributions of radioisotopes in the body.  He began a MS program in mechanical engineering at Vanderbilt, during which he took coursework related to image processing and hardware systems design.  This led to a project to develop a nuclear medicine tomographic brain scanner, working with Dr. Jim Patton and Dr. Randy Brill.    During the period between receiving a BE degree from Vanderbilt and the completion of the MS, also at Vanderbilt, Dr. Pickens was a medical student for two years at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine.  After leaving medical school, receiving the MS in Mechanical Engineering, Dr. Pickens embarked on a PhD program, working closely with Dr. Ron Price and Dr. David Rollo, Director of Nuclear Medicine, to develop new ways to produce tomographic images from a commercially available scanning gamma camera system.  The project included interfacing this system to a computer for data collection and image reconstruction, which opened up new techniques for presentation and analysis of the images.

Upon receiving his PhD in Mechanical Engineering in 1981 with emphasis in Biomedical Engineering, Dr. Pickens was offered a faculty position in the newly formed Division of Radiological Sciences headed by Dr. Leon Partain.  This group was created by Dr. Everett James, Chairman of the Department of Radiology, to expand the science of medical imaging in Radiology.  Dr. Pickens was certified by the American Board of Radiology in Diagnostic Radiological Physics in 1994.

Dr. Pickens has worked on numerous projects related to imaging in Radiology, both in clinical quality assurance and in research applications. He has published in the area of nuclear imaging and image reconstruction, digital image processing and image registration, MR perfusion and diffusion imaging, quantification of color Doppler ultrasound, fMRI imaging, software phantom designs for evaluating fMRI image processing software, and phase-contrast radiography.

Dr. Pickens has been on the faculty at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine for many years and has a secondary appointment in the School of Engineering.  He has taught medical students, nuclear medicine technologists, biomedical engineering students, medical physics graduate students, and radiology residents about clinical diagnostic imaging physics.  He has helped supervise 8 PhD students and 6 master’s students from the departments of Biomedical Engineering and Electrical Engineering & Computer Science.  Additionally, he has participated in numerous external activities, serving in several capacities for the AAPM and RSNA, and as an ad hoc reviewer for NIH.  He also has served as a member of the editorial boards and as a reviewer for several journals. 

Publications [Up to 15]:

1. Pickens DR, Price RR, Patton JA, Erickson JJ, Rollo FD, Brill AB:  Focal plane tomography image reconstruction.  IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science, Vol. NS-27, No. 1, February 1980, pp. 488-492.
2. Pickens DR, Price RR, Patton JA, Erickson JJ, Partain CL, Rollo FD:  Transverse image reconstruction in T1-201 myocardial scans.  IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science.  Vol. NS-28, No. 1, February 1981, pp. 57-59.
3. Pickens DR, Price RR, Erickson JJ, Patton JA, Partain CL, Rollo FD:  Gated digital tomography with a focal plane scanner.  IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science.  Vol. NS-29, No. 1, February 1982, pp. 551-554.
4. Pickens DR, Price RR, Erickson JJ, James AE Jr:  Digital motion correction by spatial warp methods.  Medical Physics 14(1):56-61, 1987
5. Fitzpatrick JM, Pickens DR, Grefenstette JJ, Price RR, James AE Jr:  A technique for automatic motion correction in DSA.  Optical Engineering 26(11):1085-1093, 1987.
6. Mandava VR, Fitzpatrick JM, Pickens DR:  Adaptive search space scaling in digital image registration. IEEE Trans. on Medical Imaging, Vol. 8, No. 3, Sept. 1989, pp. 251-262.
7. Pickens DR, Jolgren D, Lorenz CH, Creasy JL, and Price RR.  MR perfusion imaging of an excised animal kidney.   Investigative Radiology 27(4), pp. 287-292, 1992.
8. Meyerowitz CB, Fleischer AC, Pickens DR, Thurman GB, Borowsky AD, and Thirsk G.  Quantification of tumor vascularity and flow with amplitude color Doppler sonography in an experimental model.   Journal of Ultrasound in Medicine, 15:827-833, 1996.
9. Melzer P, Morgan VL, Pickens DR, Price RR, Wall RS and Ebner FF.  Cortical activation during braille reading is influenced by early visual experience in subjects with severe visual disability:  a correlation fMRI study.  Human Brain Mapping, 2001:14(3)186-195
10. Donnelly EF, Price RR, Pickens DR.  Dual focal-spot imaging for phase extraction in phase-contrast radiography.  Medical Physics, Vol. 30 (9), 2003, pp. 2292-2296.
11. Donnelly EF, Price RR, Pickens DR.  Experimental validation of the Wigner distributions theory of phase-contrast imaging.  Med Phys 2005: Apr; 32(4):928-31.
12. Morgan VL, Pickens DR, Gautam S, Kessler R, Mertz H.  Amitriptyline reduces rectal pain related activation of the anterior cingulate cortex in patients with irritable bowel syndrome.  Gut. 2005 May; 54(5): 601-7.
13. Pickens DR, Li Y,  Morgan VL, Dawant B. Development of computer-generated phantoms for FMRI software evaluation.  Magnetic Resonance Imaging, 2005, Jun; 23(5): 653-63.
14. Morgan VL, Dawant BM, Li Y, Pickens DR.  Comparison of fMRI statistical software packages for analysis of images containing random and stimulus-correlated motion. Computerized Medical Imaging and Graphics, 2007, Sep; 31(6):436-46.
15. Donnelly EF, Price RR, Lewis KG, Pickens DR.  Polychromatic phase-contrast computed tomography.   Medical Physics, 2007 Aug; 34(8):3165-8.

Awards:

• Third Vice-President, Radiological Society of North America, 2006
• Fellow of the American Association of Physicists in Medicine, 2008

American Association of Physicists in Medicine (AAPM) Activities:

• ad hoc Board Committee for Review of Auditor’s Report, 2004
• Board of Directors, Member-at-Large, 2004-2006
• Task Group 1 (Development of software for Annual Meeting), 2003-2004
• Chair, Program Committee, 1998 –2001
• Chair, Program Subcommittee of Meeting Coordination Committee, 2002 –2004
• Meeting Coordination Committee as Chair of Scientific Program Subcommittee, 2002-2004
• Ad Hoc Committee on Imaging within the AAPM, 2001-2003
• Ad hoc Committee on Annual Meeting Coordination, 2000-2001
• Ad hoc Committee on AAPM participation in the RSNA
• Annual Meeting, 2000-2001
• Co-Chair Local Arrangements Committee, Nashville, 1999
• Science Council, member and as Chair, Scientific Program Subcommittee, 1998 -2004
• Electronic Media Coordinating Committee, 1998 –2001
• Annual Meeting Coordinating Committee, 1998 - 2001
• Technical Exhibits Subcommittee, 1997 - 2001
• Program Committee member, 1989 – 1993
• Scientific Program Director for 1993 meeting
• Scientific Program Co-director for 1992 meeting
• Public Education Committee, 1992-1995

Other Professional Organization Activities:

• Radiology Information Systems Consortium (RISC)
• Representative from Vanderbilt University Medical Center, 1988-1996.

• Society of Nuclear Medicine
• Subcommittee on Instrumentation for the Committee on Self Assessment, 1988-1992.

• Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers(SPIE) Medical Imaging Conferences:
• Program Committee member and session chair: 1990-1993.

• Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) Activities:
• Associated Sciences Committee.  2007-2008.
• Representative to the Forum on Physics Education of Radiologists, Medical Physicists, and Radiation Oncologists: Day 2 – Physics Education of Medical Physicists. Atlanta, GA.  January 20-22, 2006. 
• Representative on the IEEE Biomedical Imaging Conference Program Committee, 2004-2005.
• Program Committee, Liaison from AAPM, 1998-2004.

Avocations and Special Interests:
Bicycling, tube audio systems, rc model planes, photography, outdoor activities

Family:
Wife -- Allison Hammond, teacher of 5 year old children
Son -- Christopher, in college at Elon University
Son -- Richard, starting college at Furman University

        

  

AAPM is the American Association of Physicists in Medicine.
One Physics Ellipse
College Park, MD 20740
Phone 301-209-3350
Fax 301-209-0862
Send general questions to 2009.aapm@aapm.org

AAPM's Privacy Policy
Use of the site constitutes your acceptance to its terms and conditions.

The AAPM is a scientific, educational, and professional nonprofit organization devoted to the discipline of physics in medicine. The information provided in this website is offered for the benefit of its members and the general public, however, AAPM does not independently verify or substantiate the information provided on other websites that may be linked to this site.