Alan Davison

Alan Davison FRS (24 March 1936 — 14 November 2015) was a British inorganic chemist known for his work on transition metals, and a professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Education

He earned a B.Sc. from Swansea University in 1959, and Ph.D. from Imperial College London in 1962, supervised by Nobel Laureate Sir Geoffrey Wilkinson.

Career and research

Davison discovered the radioactive heart imaging agent Cardiolite, Technetium (99mTc) sestamibi.

Awards and honours

He was recipient of the following:

• Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Fellow (1967)
• Paul C. Aebersold Award for Outstanding Achievement in Basic Science Applied to Nuclear Medicine (1993)
• Ernest H. Swift Lectureship at the California Institute of Technology (1999)
• Fellow of the Royal Society of London (2000)
• American Chemical Society Award for Creative Invention (2006)
• Gabbay Award (2006)
• Carothers Award for outstanding contributions and advances in industrial applications of Chemistry (2006)
• George Charles de Hevesy Nuclear Pioneer Award (2009)

Personal life

Davison died after a long illness on 14 November 2015 at the age of 79.

In popular culture

In an episode of Friday Night Dinner, family patriarch and chemistry enthusiast Martin Goodman mishears the name "Alison" as "Alan Davison".

References