Tributes are being paid to the eminent contrast agent researcher Robert Brasch, MD, who died on February 11 in Mill Valley, CA, according to a report from the Marin Independent Journal.
Brasch, 80, was a former professor of pediatric radiology at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF), noted Chris Hess, MD, chair of the UCSF radiology department. Hess described Dr. Brasch as an "internationally respected expert in the field who had a pioneering role in magnetic resonance imaging contrast agents, which affect the quality of diagnostic images."
Brasch began his career at UCSF in 1976 and retired in 2012, and throughout this time he acted as a mentor for many radiologists.
"He has been a pioneer in contrast media research, and a personal mentor and friend to many of us. All his former research fellows at UCSF will miss him a lot. I express my condolences to everybody who knew him and to the Brasch family," noted Aart J. van der Molen, MD, an abdominal and emergency radiology specialist at Leiden University Medical Center in the Netherlands.
Brasch was reportedly driving a Honda CR-V that struck two other vehicles and went into a ditch. Responders found him unconscious and in cardiac arrest and were unable to keep him alive, the Journal noted.
