Felix W. Wehrli, Editor‐in‐Chief: 13 years of dedicated service to Magnetic Resonance in Medicine
Year: 2004
Type: article
Abstract: Magnetic Resonance in Medicine and the magnetic resonance (MR) field owes Professor Felix W. Wehrli a tremendous debt. Felix's attraction to MR began, as it did for many of us, before the advent of routine MR imaging. Like many pioneers in the early days of imaging, he came first to magnetic resonance as spectroscopist and chemist. His first exposure was in 1965 during graduate school at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH), where he learned proton nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) with a Varian A-60 spectrometer, which to a young graduate student seemed an ethereal device despite the fact that it was only a continuous wave instrument. His mentor, the late Professor W. Simon, urged him, after having acquired the serial #2 90 MHz Bruker multinuclear spectrometer, to venture into the infant field of carbon-13 NMR, which considering that neither pulse Fourier nor broad-band proton decoupling had been invented yet, posed considerable challenges. After graduation, he took a job at Varian AG in Switzerland as an application scientist, which allowed him to hone his skills on state-of-the-art NMR systems and cutting edge applications. Recognizing the enormous potential of carbon-13 NMR as a means for structure determination in organic chemistry, he contributed substantially to the development and application of the methodology of combined carbon/proton NMR. He made his mark there, publishing two editions of his book, Interpretation of Carbon-13 NMR Spectra, which was found in every NMR laboratory, most often in a well-worn condition—but I am jumping ahead of the story. He then became interested in NMR of other nuclei, in particular quadrupolar nuclei, whose relaxation behavior he studied. His determination, keen interest in scientific discovery, but also his organizational skills at Varian led to his appointment as Supervisor for the NMR Application Laboratory, then later to Varian European Product/Marketing Manager for Nuclear and Electron Magnetic Resonance Spectrometers. With this success, he made his way to the United States, becoming Executive Vice President for Bruker Instruments, Inc., Billerica, Massachusetts for a period of 3 years. Realizing his need to remain active in NMR, he became Manager of Magnetic Resonance Applications for General Electric Medical Systems in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Upon joining General Electric, he was given the responsibility to develop medical applications for a new imaging modality, called MRI. It was a stimulating environment for him. In the heady days of the infant field of MRI, Felix enjoyed the collaboration and free exchange of ideas provided by his General Electric colleagues. These discussions led Felix and others to some of the earliest experiments determining the basis and quantification of MRI contrast and relaxation. They, like others, understood that the precise measurement of relaxation might contribute to the diagnosis of specific disease. Working with a number of university medical centers where the first MRI instruments were installed, he began to develop relationships with a number of the early MRI research programs. One of these, the University of Pennsylvania, asked him to join the Department of Radiology as Professor of Radiologic Science. His first task after accepting this offer was to develop an MRI teaching program for physicians, as it was becoming obvious that MRI was rapidly becoming a dominating imaging modality in medicine. In time, he became intricately involved in MRI research at Penn, eventually directing the Laboratory for Structural NMR Imaging, one of the preeminent laboratories for the structural study of bone and tissue microstructure. To this point, Felix had combined several careers into one life; he was an early and significant influence in carbon-13 NMR, in the transition of MRI to medical applications, and in early MRI education for physicians. During this time, he published three classic texts (Interpretation of Carbon-13 NMR Spectra, Biomedical Magnetic Resonance Imaging, and Fast-Scan Magnetic Resonance: Principles and Applications) as well as nearly 130 peer-reviewed manuscripts. In addition to his academic career, he had worked for three premiere companies dedicated to advancing instrumentation in research and medical MRI and NMR. This broad background prepared him as an excellent choice for the Editor of MRM. In 1991, he became Editor-in-Chief of Magnetic Resonance in Medicine. He took over this responsibility from Dr. E. Raymond Andrew, another pioneer in our field and the first Editor-in-Chief of MRM. Raymond faithfully ran the journal, often alone and without the help of a computer, for 7 years. Felix related to me that the journal was handed over to him in a large box containing the paper records of the journal's activities. Felix immediately established one of the first electronic approaches to journal management. Even the publishing community acknowledges that Felix was ahead of “almost everyone including the industry,” as he prepared his own journal database of authors, reviewers, and workflow management. Since he assumed the Editor-in Chief position in 1991, submission of manuscripts to the journal have more than doubled and should number over 700 this year. According to the most recent Institute for Scientific Information (ISI) statistics, MRM's impact factor was 3.313 in 2003. The journal currently ranks #12 among 83 radiology, nuclear medicine, and medical imaging journals (14.5th percentile) and #1 among magnetic resonance journals. This success of MRM has derived largely from the hard work and dedication of its Editors-in-Chief. During his 13-year tenure, Dr. Wehrli spent 2–4 hr every day with journal work, with few breaks to relax or to take a vacation from journal activities, to ensure that the necessary work was done. Yet in spite of this responsibility he has maintained an extraordinarily active research program with significant grant funding. The success of the journal has also come with a cost to his family. Felix's wife, Suzanne, is an accomplished NMR scientist in her own right, and perhaps understands his professional demands better than most. They are appropriately proud of their daughters, Natasha and Sarah. Natasha is now in medical school; many of you may remember her working in the MRM Office. Sarah is also planning to attend medical school. The family maintains a summer home in Cape May, New Jersey, and a condominium in Tignes, Haute Savoie in France, where they enjoy retreats to ski. Hopefully, they will now have more time together for well-deserved relaxation. I will end as I began. Magnetic Resonance in Medicine and the MR field owes Professor Felix W. Wehrli a tremendous debt. If you have the opportunity, you might want to thank him.
Source: Magnetic Resonance in Medicine
DOI: 10.1002/mrm.20406
Author: Michael B. Smith
Language: English
Subfield: Radiology, Nuclear Medicine and Imaging
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W2093214689