Twenty-eight retiring faculty members were recognized during Vanderbilt’s Commencement ceremony May 8, when the university honored their years of service and bestowed on them the title of emeritus or emerita faculty. Two of them were from the Department of Radiology and Radiological Sciences.
Jeremy J. Kaye, Professor of Radiology and Radiological Sciences, Emeritus
Kaye received a B.S. from the University of Notre Dame and an M.D. from Cornell University Medical College. After an internship in medicine at Bellevue Hospital, he trained in diagnostic radiology at the New York Hospital–Cornell Medical Center. On completion of his residency, he served in the United States Army, rising to the rank of major. After completing his military service in 1971, he returned to Cornell and the Hospital for Special Surgery as an assistant professor of radiology, a position he held until 1976, when he was first recruited to Vanderbilt. He rose through the academic ranks at Vanderbilt, becoming an associate professor in 1976 and a professor in 1980 and going from section chief to division head. In 1988, he returned to Cornell as director of the Department of Radiology at the Hospital for Special Surgery, part of Cornell Medical Center. He was recruited back to Vanderbilt in 2000 as professor of radiology and radiological sciences and vice chair of the department. In 2007, he was named the Carol D. and Henry P. Pendergrass Professor and chair of the department of radiology and radiological sciences, a position he held until 2012, when he decided to step down as chair but continue working in the department. He has written more than 100 scientific publications and six books, given more than 500 invited lectures nationally and internationally, and been a visiting professor at more than 70 prestigious academic medical centers. He is a member of numerous scientific societies and a past president of the International Skeletal Society, for which he previously served as assistant secretary and treasurer. Additionally, he served on the board of trustees of the society’s endowment fund for more than a decade and was chairman of the board for three years. In 2010, the International Skeletal Society presented him with the Founder’s Medal, its highest award. He was the editor of Skeletal Radiology for 11 years and served as associate editor of Radiology for five years. He has been an examiner for the American Board of Radiology since 1979 and has received three Distinguished Service Awards from the American Board of Radiology. In 2013, he was awarded the Lifetime Service Award from the American Board of Radiology.
C. Leon Partain, Professor of Radiology and Radiological Sciences, Emeritus
Partain received his B.S. in nuclear engineering from the University of Tennessee, his M.S. and Ph.D. in nuclear engineering from Purdue University and his M.D. from Washington University. He completed his residency training in diagnostic radiology and nuclear medicine at the University of North Carolina. His career includes a position as a nuclear engineer at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. He was recruited to the Department of Radiology and Radiological Sciences at Vanderbilt in 1980 and became a professor in 1984. He was named the first Carol D. and Henry P. Pendergrass Professor and Chair. He is clinically trained and certified in diagnostic radiology and nuclear radiology by the American Board of Radiology and the American Board of Nuclear Medicine. His society affiliations include the American College of Radiology, the American College of Nuclear Medicine, the Society of Magnetic Resonance Imaging and the International Society of Magnetic Resonance in Medicine. He served as president of the Radiological Research Alliance of the Association of University Radiologists and has held executive roles as a member of many radiological society boards. He was editor in chief of the Journal of Magnetic Resonance Imaging from 2000 to 2013 and a member of the editorial boards of Magnetic Resonance in Medicine, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, the American Journal of Roentgenology, Academic Radiology, the Journal of Nuclear Medicine and Investigative Radiology. He has authored six textbooks, including the first comprehensive text in nuclear magnetic resonance imaging translated into Japanese in 1983. He also authored 96 book chapters and 200 archival journal articles. He received the Distinguished Service Award from the International Society of Magnetic Resonance in Medicine in 2014 and has served the American Board of Radiology as an examiner for 20 years, the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education as a member of the Nuclear Medicine Residency Review Committee, and Vanderbilt University School of Medicine in multiple capacities.
