- Professor, Department of Radiology, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania
Dr. Abass Alavi is a Professor of Radiology and Neurology and Director of Research Education in the Department of Radiology at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. He received his MD from Tehran University and completed residency training at Albert Einstein Medical Center, the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, and Beth Israel Hospital in Boston, before joining the Penn faculty in the early 1970s.
Dr. Alavi is internationally regarded as a pioneer of molecular imaging, having led the first human use of 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) positron emission tomography in 1976 — a discovery that transformed clinical oncology, cardiology, neurology, and inflammation imaging. His ongoing research applies advanced PET techniques to characterize systemic inflammation in autoimmune and vascular disease, supporting earlier detection and quantitative monitoring of disease activity in conditions ranging from large-vessel vasculitis to interstitial lung disease.
An author on more than a thousand peer-reviewed publications and a recipient of the highest honors in nuclear medicine, Dr. Alavi continues to mentor radiologists and scientists at Penn and remains a central translational figure linking imaging innovation to autoimmune and inflammatory disease research across the Penn Colton Center and the broader Penn Medicine community.