Society of Interventional Radiology Foundation bestows annual awards

AUSTIN, Texas, March 25, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- The Society of Interventional Radiology Foundation presented the Leaders in Innovation Award posthumously to William Cook, FSIR, on March 25, during the Society of Interventional Radiology's (SIR) Annual Scientific Meeting in Austin, Texas.

Cook was a visionary entrepreneur who founded Cook Medical with his wife Gayle, in 1963. In 1964, he partnered with Dr. Charles Dotter, known as the father of interventional radiology, on the first angioplasty. Today, Cook Medical is a global company operating in more than 135 countries, developing and producing medical devices, biologic materials and cellular therapies.

"Bill Cook had an innovative spirit with forward-thinking ideas that helped to pave the way for interventional radiology to become the field that it is today. His legacy inspires us to stay on the cutting edge of medicine," said SIR Foundation Chair Jeremy C. Durack, M.D., M.S., FSIR, interventional radiologist at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York, "Our specialty is grateful for his leadership and persistence in his work to improve the standard of care for patients worldwide."

The Dr. Gary J. Becker Young Investigator Award recognizes promising young practitioners to encourage the pursuit of academic careers. This year's recipient is Etay Ziv, M.D., Ph.D., of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York. Over the past four years as junior faculty at Memorial Sloan Kettering, he has built a research program which offers a paradigm shift in interventional radiology to a precision medicine approach. Ziv's special focus has been on developing a vision of personalized medicine within the treatment of neuroendocrine tumors, which ultimately seeks to propel interventional radiology from post-treatment correlations to pretreatment prediction and finally to the rational design of adjuvant therapies.

The following individuals were recognized for their outstanding achievements in research and innovation with the Dr. Constantin Cope Medical Student Research Award: Damir Ljuboja, Harvard Medical School, Boston; Arif Musa, Wayne State University School of Medicine, Detroit; Isabel Schobert, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, Conn.; Stephen Rodriguez, University of Texas Southwestern Medical School, Dallas; Neil Jain, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia; and Adam Schmitz, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis.

SIR Foundation's Resident/Fellow Research Awards recognize high-quality research by trainees. This year's recipients are Julie Cronan, M.D., Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, and Ehsan Fayazzadeh, M.D., Cleveland Clinic.

About the Society of Interventional Radiology
The Society of Interventional Radiology is a nonprofit, professional medical society representing more than 8,000 practicing interventional radiology physicians, trainees, students, scientists and clinical associates, dedicated to improving patient care through the limitless potential of image-guided therapies. SIR's members work in a variety of settings and at different professional levels—from medical students and residents to university faculty and private practice physicians. Visit sirweb.org.

The Society of Interventional Radiology is holding its Annual Scientific Meeting March 23–28, 2019 at the Austin Convention Center in Austin, Texas. Visit sirmeeting.org. 

About the Society of Interventional Radiology Foundation
SIR Foundation is a scientific foundation dedicated to fostering research and education in interventional radiology for the purposes of advancing scientific knowledge, increasing the number of skilled investigators in interventional radiology and developing innovative therapies that lead to improved patient care and quality of life. Visit sirfoundation.org.

SOURCE Society of Interventional Radiology