S. James Adelstein

"Jim" Adelstein, of Canton MA and Chappaquiddick MA, was born in Brooklyn, NY to George and Belle (Schild) Adelstein. He earned a BS and a PhD in biophysics from MIT and his MD from Harvard Medical School in 1953. In 1957 he married Mary Charlesworth Taylor from Lincoln, MA.

He spent his entire career at Harvard Medical School, first as a bench scientist in the anatomy department. He then initiated the Division of Nuclear Medicine at the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital which grew to be a program including the Children's Hospital, the West Roxbury VA, Beth Israel Deaconess and Dana Farber. He led the collaboration of all five hospitals which combined the training, research, clinical services and the compounding of radiopharmaceuticals. His laboratory invented the most frequently used cardiac scanning agent: Cardiolite.

He was concerned about the effects of radiation and served as Vice President of the National Council on Radiation Protection and Radiation for 19 years. He also served as chairman of the Board on radiation Effects Research of the National Academy of Sciences.

He subsequently served for 20 years as Executive Dean for Academic Programs at HMS midwifing an entirely new curriculum called the New Pathway which was skill-centered, problem-based and learning to learn. This new way of teaching medicine also required the reorganization of departments and addition of new departments.

He led these changes through kindness and fairness. His sympathetic understanding made him trusted and enabled him to get things done.

After the deanship he was named the Daniel C. Tosteson University Professor.

Since his retirement, he has served as President of the Vallee Foundation, which supports bio-medical researchers around the world.

In addition to his spouse, he leaves his son Joseph Burrows Adelstein, daughter-in-law Susan Wijffels, granddaughter Rusty Wijffels Adelstein and his daughter Elizabeth Dunster Adelstein. He was predeceased by his brother Robert Simon Adelstein, MD.

Memorial gifts can be made to. S. James Adelstein Endowed Scholarship Fund, Harvard Medical School, P.O. Box 419720, Boston, MA 02241-9720 or Doctors Without Borders USA, 40 Rector St., 16th Floor, New York, NY 10006.