Cathy Sue Cutler, PhD, has been named president of the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging (SNMMI).
Cutler serves as chair of the Isotope Research and Production Department at Brookhaven National Laboratory in Upton, NY, and has previously served in several SNMMI board positions, and as president of the SNMMI Center for Molecular Imaging Innovation and Translation and chair of the advocacy domain within SNMMI's Value Initiative.
Cathy Sue Cutler, PhD.
“While the nuclear medicine field is making substantial progress in improving patient outcomes, we are handicapped by an inadequate reimbursement system that limits patient access to these innovative imaging tools,” Cutler said in an SNMMI statement. “As president, I will continue to work to support the Facilitating Innovative Nuclear Diagnostics (FIND) Act of 2023, which will ensure equitable access to care and treatment for patients.”
In addition, Cutler plans to address the workforce shortage among radiochemists, medical physicists, radiopharmacists, nuclear technologists, and physicians, and ensure that potential entrants understand pathways into the field. She also intends to create training and education opportunities in theranostics and to educate the public on nuclear medicine and its value.
Cutler's awards are many. In 2024, she was part of the team that was awarded the Department of Energy Secretarial Honors award for its work on actinium-225 (Ac-225). In 2022, Cutler received the Pinnacle Award in Science and Technology from Brookhaven National Laboratory, which recognizes contributions to the laboratory’s science and technology mission. In 2019, she received the Brookhaven 33rd Annual Women’s Recognition Award for Achievements in Science, and in 2014, she received the Mizzou Advantage Entrepreneurial Award.
A member of the European Association of Nuclear Medicine, the Society of Radiopharmaceutical Sciences, and the American Chemical Association, Cutler holds 12 patents and has published 95 peer-reviewed journal articles and eight book chapters.
Cutler earned a bachelor of science degree in biochemistry and a doctorate in inorganic chemistry from the University of Cincinnati in Cincinnati, OH, where she also completed a post-doctorate in analytical chemistry. She spent 17 years at the Missouri University Research Reactor center, first as a research scientist and then as a professor.
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