Robert J. Shalek, Ph.D., J.D.

Abstract

We are saddened to report the death of Dr. Robert J. Shalek, who passed away at the age of 93 on April 20, 2015. Robert J. Shalek, Ph.D. was born in Chicago, IL in 1922. He earned his undergraduate degree in physics from the University of Illinois in Champaign. After graduating, he served in the US Army for 3 years as a Signal Corp officer. He returned home to Texas where his parents had moved and entered the graduate program at the Rice Institute (now Rice University). He earned two masters degrees (physics and mathematics) and went on to earn a Ph.D. in biophysics in 1953. Dr. Shalek was the second Rice Physics Fellow in the Department of Physics at the MD Anderson Hospital [currently The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center (MDACC)]. During this time, he worked with Leonard Grimmett on one of the world's first 60Co units. Upon receiving his Ph.D. he spent a postdoctoral year at the Royal Cancer Hospital (now called the Royal Marsden Hospital) in London, England under the guidance of W. V. Mayneord, the Head of the Physics Department and author of the “Mayneord F factor.” After this postdoctoral year he returned to the Department of Physics at MDACC. He published over 100 scientific papers before retiring in 1985 after working at MDACC for 35 years. Among his many contributions to Medical Physics, he was Chairman of the Department of Radiation Physics (1961–1984) at MDACC following Dr. Leonard Grimmett and Dr. Warren Sinclair, both very experienced medical physicists from England. He and Dr. Gilbert Fletcher, the chairman of the Department of Radiation Therapy at MDACC from 1948 to 1981, recognized the need for medical physics quality assurance for national multi-institutional clinical trials and as such, along with the AAPM, proposed a center of physics quality assurance for clinical trials. He ultimately was awarded the first National Cancer Institute grant to create the Radiological Physics Center (RPC) and was its first Director from 1968 until 1985. He was one of AAPM's founding charter members and served as the AAPM's seventh president in 1966. He became a fellow of the AAPM and was awarded ASTRO's Gold Medal in 1996. He was the second recipient of the AAPM's William D. Coolidge Award in 1972 and the sixth recipient of the Marvin M. D. Williams Professional Achievement Award in 1994. His career has encompassed both basic research and the application of physics to clinical problems. His basic research included studies of oxygen reactions following radiation interactions1 and the proportion of direct and indirect radiation action in living cells.2 His clinically related work included the dosimetry of external treatment beams, brachytherapy dosimetry, and quality assurance in radiotherapy physics.3 In the 1960s he wrote one of the seminal papers4 on ferrous sulfate (Fricke) dosimetry that made chemical dosimetry available in the clinic. Also in the 1960s, he and his trainee (and later, colleague) Marilyn Stovall published a series of articles describing the MD Anderson method for implant dosimetry using computerized techniques.5–9 These publications helped disseminate these methods and enabled many institutions to introduce what were for the time very advanced brachytherapy calculation techniques. From right to left, Dr. Shalek, Dr. Hanson, and Dr. Ibbott at a reception in 2001 for Geoff Ibbott, the new RPC Director. While working at MDACC, Dr. Shalek studied law at the University of Houston during the evenings and received his J.D. in 1983. He lectured regularly on legal questions in medical physics and regularly gave professional legal advice to physicists. He also participated in medical malpractice suits, usually as an expert witness. Bob was especially proud of his book, Medical Physicists and Malpractice10 (authored with David Gooden) that outlines the legal framework of liability risk in radiation therapy, the impact on clinical physicists, and practical approaches for avoiding and managing such lawsuits. Dr. Shalek is survived by his wife Elaine V. Shalek, 6 children, 9 grandchildren, and 4 great grandchildren. His accomplishments in medical physics will be long remembered. Equally well known is the way he conducted himself throughout his career, always as a man of high principle and character. He truly was a credit to our profession and is remembered fondly by so many whose lives he touched during his incredibly successful and meaningful career.