Hi All,
for those who had not heard. The only think I have to add to Bruce's email about Jack is that he was a kind soul and that I will miss him.
Bruce
---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Fri, 21 Feb 2014 14:14:45 -0500 From: Bruce Rosen bruce@nmr.mgh.harvard.edu To: all@nmr.mgh.harvard.edu Subject: Re: [All] Sad News
On a very sad note, I wanted to share with you the news of the passing of John (Jack) Belliveau late last week. Jack has been a visionary member of our Martinos community for close to 30 years. Tom Brady first introduced him to me as a new graduate student from the Biophysics program at Harvard, and he quickly became a key contributor to our early efforts to measure perfusion with MRI. More importantly, however, it was Jacks passion for understanding how the human brain worked (he was convinced that someday we would be able to capture human thought) that led him to explore the use of these newly developed perfusion imaging tools to study human brain function - that work led to his Ph.D. thesis, "Functional NMR Imaging of the Brain", starting the revolution in "Functional Imaging" that would be used by thousands of investigators over the next 30 years. His publication of the first fMRI pictures led to the iconic image on the cover of Science that I’ve included below, along with some quotes from his thesis that have proven so prescient for how we perform dynamic fMRI today.
This work was undisputedly the very first use of MRI for human brain mapping. It set in motion the entire field of fMRI, including Ken Kwong’s remarkable fMRI images formed without the use of contrast agents the following year. While Ken’s contribution was of undeniable creativity and impact, there is no doubt that the MGH’s exploration of the potential of MRI to study human brain function was started, and largely driven, by Jack and his vision for how MRI could transform how we study the human brain.
For those of you who didn't know Jack personally, he was a remarkable person, intellectually and personally. He was a larger than life figure in our community (literally and spiritually), with an infectious enthusiasm for science that all who knew him learned to love. He showed a remarkable creativity and generosity throughout his career and life from the time he joined us as a graduate student until his passing.
We will miss him very much here - I thought that you all should know. For now, Brigitte has asked for privacy as she and their daughter Amilee begin to deal with his loss, but I will be planning a memorial celebration of his life and science sometime soon, and of course will keep you all posted.