Lionel S Zuckier, MD

Dr. Lionel Zucker is a dual-trained diagnostic radiologist and nuclear medicine physician with a primary focus on nuclear medicine and molecular imaging and therapy. He is a professor of radiology at the Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons and director of theranostics within the Division of Nuclear Medicine.

Dr. Zuckier served as division head of nuclear medicine at Montefiore Medical Center, where he oversaw the introduction of the prostate cancer theranostic program and was involved in phase I trials of a novel peptide imaging agent. His group also applied its expertise in lung imaging of pulmonary embolism to suggest revised protocols during the COVID-19 pandemic which were adopted nationally and internationally. He previously served as division head of nuclear medicine at the University of Ottawa within the Department of Internal Medicine, where he collaborated closely with thrombosis researchers focused on lung imaging of pulmonary embolism and with the prominent evidence-based medicine group at the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute.

Dr. Zuckier lectures and publishes widely in all facets of nuclear medicine. He has guest edited several issues of Seminars in Nuclear Medicine and the Journal of Medical Imaging and Radiation Sciences and has coedited Nuclear Medicine Board Review, a trainee review book, and Clinical Nuclear Medicine, a textbook of general nuclear medicine and molecular imaging.

As chair of the General Clinical Nuclear Medicine Council of the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging, Dr. Zuckier has helped direct educational programs at the national and international level. He is actively involved in several guidelines consensus committees, including those concerning death by neurologic criteria (drain death) and others related to abdominal imaging in nuclear medicine (GI bleeding, gastric emptying). He also maintains an organizational role within the Targeted Alpha Therapy (TAT) group, including introducing the first clinical day at the TAT11 conference held in Ottawa in 2019. As director of theranostics at Columbia, Dr. Zuckier develops clinical and research protocols in this promising area, using novel targeting molecules bearing radionuclides to image and treat cancer and other diseases.

Dr. Zuckier obtained his Doctor of Medicine at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, where he also completed residencies in nuclear medicine and diagnostic radiology and pursued a National Institutes of Health (NIH) physician scientist award related to targeting of monoclonal antibodies in the laboratory of Dr. Matthew Scharff, a renowned B-cell immunologist. He also holds a Master of Business Administration from the University of Massachusetts, tailored towards physician executives.