The College will recognize leaders in the imaging community at ACR 2026. Let's look at this year’s recipients of the ACR Gold Medal and Honorary Fellowship.
By Chad Hudnall, Alex Utano and Raina Keefer, ACR Press
Each year, the ACR awards individuals whose work and dedication advance and strengthen the specialty. Spanning continents and subspecialties, this year’s recipients include individuals from across the community of imaging intervention and therapy. Commendations will be awarded at ACR 2026, the annual meeting taking place in May in Washington, DC.
The Gold Medal is awarded by the BOC to radiologists, radiation oncologists, medical physicists and other distinguished scientists for their extraordinary service to the ACR or to the discipline of radiology. Service to radiology can be in teaching, basic research, clinical investigation or radiologic statesmanship, such as outstanding contributions in working with the ACR, other medical organizations, government agencies and quasi-medical organizations.
Excellence in clinical care, education and research is essential for our specialty to flourish, gain recognition and earn the respect of the broader medical community.
Hedvig Hricak, MD, PhD, Dr. (h.c.m), FACR, had many interests growing up, including mathematics, physics and caring for other people. Medicine was the obvious career for her to explore, and when she found radiology — a specialty that allowed her to combine three of her passions into a profession — she knew it was the path for her.
After receiving her MD from the University of Zagreb and completing a residency and fellowship in the United States, Hricak began her career at Henry Ford Hospital, with an academic appointment as an assistant clinical professor of radiology at the University of Michigan. Soon afterward, she moved to the University of California, San Francisco, and rapidly advanced to the rank of professor. The next move was to Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK) in New York, where she served as chair of radiology for 23 years. She is now chair emerita of the Department of Radiology at MSK and an emeritus Professor of Radiology at Weill Medical College of Cornell University.
The hallmark of Hricak's academic career has been the development, translation, and dissemination of diagnostic imaging techniques, including molecular imaging, primarily for genitourinary cancers. She spearheaded the very first ACRIN trial on the value of MRI in cervical cancer.
The ACR Gold Medal isn’t Hricak’s first — she has previously received eight gold medals from societies such as the European Society of Radiology, the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) and the Asian Oceanian Society of Radiology. Hricak was named a Fellow of the ACR in 1989. She was also awarded the Marie Curie Award from the Society of Women in Radiology in 2002 and the Presidential Award of Croatia in 2009. In 2002, Hricak was elected a member of the National Academy of Medicine (NAM) and received the NAM David Rall Medal for distinguished leadership in 2018. She holds honorary doctorates from Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, Germany and University of Toulouse III, Paul Sabatier, Toulouse, France. To Hricak, every award has been special in its own way, recognizing a different chapter and accomplishment in her career.
While she has already accomplished a lot, Hricak is not done making an impact on the specialty. Global radiology and policymaking are two areas in which she remains active. “Excellence in clinical care, education and research is essential for our specialty to flourish, gain recognition and earn the respect of the broader medical community,” says Hricak, “but achieving sustained investment and global outreach requires collaboration with government policymakers and international organizations — World Health Organization, International Atomic Energy Agency and relevant UN agencies.”
Mentorship resides at the very heart of Hricak’s being. For her, mentorship goes beyond guiding short-term professional choices. “Mentorship is a lifelong relationship, a deep bond that forms and sustains, creating a global family,” Hricak said. “It is profoundly rewarding to travel the world and reconnect with your mentees. I am proud of each one and cherish the privilege of learning about the chapters of their lives that unfold thereafter.”
Hricak’s advice to aspiring radiologists is to carve your own path and find something you are passionate about. “There is no right or wrong in making your career decision,” she says. “There is no recipe for professional success, but I think passion, dedication, and hard work are the key ingredients. And, whatever you decide to do, give it your all.”
My idea to separate women at higher-than-average risk…I think has had significant clinical impact. It was the first of its kind — becoming the most cited paper of JACR® for two consecutive years.
Debra L. Monticciolo, MD, FACR, has been a longtime advocate for patient access to quality imaging care — particularly breast imaging. She is chair of the Screening Leadership Group and Communications for the ACR Commission on Breast Imaging. Monticciolo is a former president of the ACR and former chair of the ACR Commission on Quality and Safety. Also, as chair of ACR accreditation programs, she was instrumental in developing both the Breast Imaging Centers of Excellence and Diagnostic Imaging Centers of Excellence.
In addition to a career of excellent clinical work driving innovation, Monticciolo has contributed impressive scholarly work, including a host of papers on breast cancer screening and diversity. She enjoys teaching at all career levels — educating students, technologists, fellows, faculty and clinicians, helping to shape national best practices.
She served as president of the Society of Breast Imaging (SBI), where she established national screening policy through evidence-based research. Monticciolo is recognized as a national and international expert in breast cancer screening. She was lead author for ACR/SBI position papers in 2017, 2018, 2021 and 2023. “My idea to separate women at higher-than-average risk…I think has had significant clinical impact,” Monticciolo says. “It was the first of its kind — becoming the most cited paper of JACR® for two consecutive years. It remains in the top five cited papers for 2021.”
“I started out in education with the Harvey L. Neiman Health Policy Institute® and was in line to be chair of education when I was asked to chair the ACR Commission on Quality and Safety,” Monticciolo says. “Then, I became chair of the ACR Commission on Breast Imaging, always working with great leaders who either preceded me or followed me in those roles. This has given me a lot of good experiences from multiple perspectives within the ACR.”
Monticciolo used to give lectures to trainees during her time in private practice. In fact, she has given over 400 invited lectures and led courses to train technologists, especially in image quality and breast ultrasound. She also created a teaching curriculum that included hands-on biopsy training.
As chair of ACR Commission on Quality and Safety, Monticciolo was already familiar with the ACR Appropriateness Criteria® and ACR’s Practice Parameters and Technical Standards, which she named. Still, her true passion has always been breast imaging. “When I went into radiology, mammography was not even included on the boards — it was not a subspecialty; it was something people did after hours,” she says. “But when I first saw a mammogram, I knew it was important. Plus, I love making a diagnosis.”
Monticciolo credits her longtime engagement with the ACR largely to her relationship with the College’s staff. “What has kept me involved in the ACR is the people that work there,” she says. “The passion they have for making things better for patients and quality within our specialty to me is inspiring. I have come to know a lot of ACR staff over the years and have worked one-on-one with many of them. This award is special to me because of them.”
Honorary ACR Fellowship recognizes the contributions to the science or practice of radiology by individuals who are ineligible for ACR Fellowship through conventional means. These individuals are luminaries who have made significant contributions to the science or practice of radiology but who — by virtue of residence, education, profession or lack of board certification — are ineligible for admission as ACR members in any category other than international. Honorary ACR Fellows, like ACR Fellows, are elected by the Board of Chancellors.
If there is an opportunity for me to give something to young people, to educate the radiology community and advance my own and related specialties — even if it’s a small thing — I will do it.
Banu Atalar, MD, is a radiation oncologist in Istanbul whose career has always been driven by educating and mentoring young people and a desire to bring together the international medical community through her vision of collaboration without borders.
She is president of the Turkish Society for Radiation Oncology (TROD), chair of the European Society for Radiotherapy and Oncology (ESTRO) National Societies Committee and recently appointed as the Head of radiation oncology department at Anadolu Medical Center (in affiliation with Johns Hopkins Medicine) in Istanbul, Türkiye.
Atalar is well known for her accomplishments in research and leadership in educating radiation oncologists in Türkiye and the Middle East/Africa. She is a member of ASTRO, ESTRO, the Radiosurgery Society Scientific Meeting Organization Committee, ASCO, MESTRO (Middle Eastern Society for Radiation Oncology), AMSTRO (Asia and Middle East society of Therapeutic Radiation Oncology) and the Rare Cancer Network. She is also the first Turkish recipient of the ASCO International Development and Education Award and was honored with the International Mentorship Award from the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer in 2018.
As an oncology specialist with an impressive academic and clinical background, Atalar earned a professorship at Acıbadem University in 2018 after serving as an associate professor there starting in 2013. Her work has spanned patient care, teaching and therapeutic radiology research. She has a deep commitment to global collaboration and advancing care for complex and rare cancers.
To that end, Atalar has organized the first International Advanced Radiotherapy Techniques Symposium to be held in June 2026 in Istanbul. “I’ve been working for a long time with societies from America, Europe and the Middle East and thought hosting an international meeting in Istanbul could bring East and West together on middle ground. Istanbul has something for everyone, and it will be worth the trip!”
She credits her interest in making and maintaining international connections in part to her brief fellowship at Stanford. “That’s where it all started for me,” she recalls. “It was a door for me to explore out of Türkiye and better understand the world. I have kept up the connections I made there throughout my career here at home.”
Atalar hopes the symposium will be especially beneficial to young people interested in or entering the specialty. “Working with young people makes you feel energetic. They inspire you to want to do more,” Atalar says. “I wanted to do more work with young people in Türkiye and that opportunity came when I became the chair of the Young Radiation Oncologists Group, a group within TROD.”
Looking ahead to the summer, Atalar is enthusiastic about the debut symposium. “We have colleagues from the UK, Canada, the U.S., from all over Europe and also from the Middle East planning to attend,” she says. Her efforts epitomize the qualities and achievements of an ACR Honorary Fellow — and her work is far from done.
“If there is an opportunity for me to give something to young people, to educate the radiology community and advance my own and related specialties — even if it’s a small thing — I will do it,” she says. “I don’t accept that something cannot be done, so I will continue to work for best outcomes through civilized talks. We all have an opportunity to better understand our field, at home and across the world.”
Our role is not limited to just being excellent in our field,” he says. “We have an obligation to ensure that all patients have appropriate and timely access to imaging.
When Bien Soo Tan, MBBS, FRCR, reflects on his career, he does not describe a meticulously planned ascent. Instead, he speaks about curiosity, resilience and a willingness to step forward when needed. That grounded perspective, along with decades of impact, makes his ACR Honorary Fellowship especially meaningful.
Tan, a senior consultant in the department of vascular and IR at Singapore General Hospital, discovered IR almost by chance. As an intern rotating through internal medicine, he was asked to review a patient following a percutaneous lung biopsy. What stayed with him was how well the patient looked and the absence of any visible wound. “I was amazed,” he recalls, noting that the experience prompted him to request a rotation in radiology after internship “to find out more about the specialty and IR.” That brief encounter was enough. “I was sold,” he says.
His timing placed him at the leading edge of a field still emerging across much of Asia. Practicing IR in the 1990s was both exhilarating and demanding, he notes. Rapid technological advances and the creativity of early pioneers drove what Tan describes as a “tremendous explosion in IR procedures,” with new techniques appearing seemingly every few weeks. Yet progress came with challenges. Resources were scarce, and recognition for the value of IR services was not guaranteed. Those early years required persistence and advocacy — experiences that, as he puts it, “taught us to be resilient.”
Although his career would come to include extensive leadership roles, Tan never set out to be an administrator or system-builder. He describes himself as an “accidental reluctant leader,” motivated less by ambition than by necessity. His personal goal was straightforward: “to be the best interventional radiologist that I could be.” Over time, however, he recognized that individual excellence alone could not sustain or grow radiology and IR. Progress required organization, management and advocacy — practitioners willing to stand up so more patients could benefit.
Even so, Tan consistently emphasizes that radiology’s development in Singapore was a collective effort. “My contributions are but a single brick in the whole infrastructure we see today,” he says, expressing gratitude for the opportunity to help build something larger than himself.
His perspective broadened further through global service, including work with the Lancet Commission on Diagnostics and as the only international member of the RSNA COVID-19 Task Force. The Commission’s guiding principle, “No treatment without diagnosis,” reinforced what he had long observed: diagnostic services are often underfunded or overlooked when health care systems are designed. These experiences underscored the responsibility of radiologists to advocate not only for their specialty, but for patients’ access to timely and appropriate imaging. “Our role is not limited to just being excellent in our field,” he says. “We have an obligation to ensure that all patients have appropriate and timely access to imaging.”
That sense of responsibility was tested during major public health crises, including SARS and COVID-19. SARS, he recalls, struck with particular force because of a false sense of security in urban healthcare systems. One enduring lesson was the need to make infection control habitual, “much like when we automatically wear a seat belt,” he says. Those hard-earned lessons, along with post-SARS infrastructure changes, meant radiology teams in Singapore were far better prepared when COVID-19 emerged. Tan and his colleagues shared their early experiences through publications and webinars, helping radiology departments worldwide adapt quickly. What left the deepest impression, however, was the response of healthcare workers. In crisis, he says, teams consistently “rise to the occasion” and demonstrate “the strength of the human spirit to overcome adversity.”
When asked what brings him the greatest pride, Tan points to the people he has taught and mentored. Over the past 25 years, Singapore General Hospital has, in addition to training local radiologists, trained more than 70 IR fellows from across Asia and beyond. Many who have trained under him now hold leadership roles in Singapore and in their home countries. Watching former trainees surpass him, he says, is profoundly gratifying.
Teaching, for Tan, is a way of paying forward an immeasurable debt to his own mentors. Quoting educator Christa McAuliffe who perished in the Space Shuttle Challenger, “I teach, I touch the future,” he describes teaching as both energizing and humbling. Above all, he hopes to cultivate resilience in the next generation, particularly as radiology navigates rapid change, including the rise of artificial intelligence. With preparation, he believes, AI can be harnessed to help radiology reach “levels we never imagined possible.”
His perspective on ACR Honorary Fellowship is characteristically reflective. “This award is a tremendous honor for me personally, and I am humbled that the ACR deemed me deserving,” he says, noting that he never sought recognition for his work. The honor was “totally unexpected,” making it all the more meaningful. He views it not only as a personal milestone, but also as recognition of “the high standards of radiology practiced in Singapore and in Asia,” crediting colleagues across the region.
Nearly 40 years after beginning his training, Tan still sounds quietly amazed by the journey. He never imagined the developments he would witness — or the role he would play in shaping them. “I am really grateful for the journey in radiology that I have taken,” he says. In that gratitude lies the heart of his story: a career built not on chasing accolades, but on showing up, saying yes and laying one brick at a time.
The driving force was to create a community that took take care of all information possible to achieve in a hybrid imaging examination or research or education surrounding.
Katrine Riklund, MD, PhD, is a professor and senior consultant in diagnostic radiology and nuclear medicine and former pro vice chancellor at Umeå University in Sweden. She is now the dean of the medical faculty at the same university, the school where she earned her medical degree in 1988. Riklund also has a passion for nuclear medicine, receiving a PhD from Umeå University in both diagnostic radiology and nuclear medicine. Riklund’s international journey in medicine began in 1985 in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada, where the specialty of radiology caught Riklund’s attention and led her down that path in medicine. “I was really captured by the beauty of radiology and the kind people I worked with,” Riklund says.
As Riklund’s career progressed in both radiology and nuclear medicine, she achieved a significant milestone, being the congress president of the European Congress of Radiology (ECR) 2016 and becoming the founding president of the Molecular and Translational Imaging (ESHIMT) in the same year. ESHIMT has a focus on education and research in hybrid imaging and how the two fields of knowledge could come together to make an impact. It is a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting and coordinating the scientific, intellectual and professional activities of individuals working in hybrid imaging incorporating two or more imaging modalities, imaging of tissue function and imaging at cellular and molecular levels. The mission of the society is to develop clinically relevant imaging probes and technologies and translate them from bench to bedside to help improve patient care. This will be achieved through training, education and research. The society is open to anybody working in these areas of imaging including physicians, scientists, physicists, technologists, radiographers and others. ESHIMT will foster specific educational and training programs to evolve and disseminate knowledge about these new areas of imaging in the medical community across Europe and the world. “The driving force was to create a community that took take care of all information possible to achieve in a hybrid imaging examination or research or education surrounding ,” Riklund says.
In addition to the ACR Honorary Fellowship, Riklund has been the recipient of several awards and honors throughout her career, including the European Society of Radiology Gold Medal in 2020 and honorary member of the RSNA and Société Française de Radiologie, both in 2017 and the Alfreit Breite prize from the German Roentgen Society in 2019. While her work at Umeå University has been ongoing and extensive, Riklund has held other leadership positions throughout her career, serving ESR in many positions from 2009 and was the Chair of the Board of Directors in ESR (2016-2017), president of the Swedish Society of Nuclear Medicine (from 2003 to 2007) and chair of the Acta Radiologica editorial board (from 2012 to 2013).
According to Riklund, mentorship is critical to a radiologist’s career development, which is the reason she has served as a mentor to several PhD-students and early career radiologists. “The older I get, the more important I realize mentorship is,” she says. “I love mentoring young researchers find their way through different aspects of their job and seeing where their career takes them.”
Riklund is determined to prepare the next generation of radiologists at Umeå University and elsewhere for the future. If she could offer one piece of advice to aspiring radiologists, it would be to be curious and open to collaboration and to take on challenges. “It’s important to have curiosity and a good mentor to navigate and to develop knowledge and science and how to tackle projects, find resources but also to have a balanced life,” Riklund says. “I don’t advise to walk alone.”
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