Alan Davison

Alan Davison FRS^[1] (24 March 1936 — 14 November 2015) was a British inorganic chemist known for his work on transition metals, and a professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.^[2]

Alan Davison
Born	(1936-03-24)24 March 1936
Died	14 November 2015(2015-11-14) (aged 79)
Alma mater	Swansea University (BSc) Imperial College London (PhD)
Awards	Fellow of the Royal Society[1]
Scientific career
Institutions	Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Thesis	Studies on the chemistry of transition metal carbonyls (1962)
Doctoral advisor	Geoffrey Wilkinson

Education

He earned a B.Sc. from Swansea University in 1959, and Ph.D. from Imperial College London in 1962,^[3] supervised by Nobel Laureate Sir Geoffrey Wilkinson.^[4]

Career and research

Davison discovered the radioactive heart imaging agent Cardiolite, Technetium (99mTc) sestamibi.^[5]

Awards and honours

He was recipient of the following:^[4]

• Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Fellow (1967)^[6]
• Paul C. Aebersold Award for Outstanding Achievement in Basic Science Applied to Nuclear Medicine (1993)^[7]
• Ernest H. Swift Lectureship at the California Institute of Technology (1999)^[6]
• Fellow of the Royal Society of London (2000)^[1]
• American Chemical Society Award for Creative Invention (2006)^[6]
• Gabbay Award (2006)^[8]
• Carothers Award for outstanding contributions and advances in industrial applications of Chemistry (2006)^[6]
• George Charles de Hevesy Nuclear Pioneer Award (2009)^[9]

Personal life

Davison died after a long illness on 14 November 2015 at the age of 79.^[1][6]

In popular culture

In an episode of Friday Night Dinner, after mishearing his wife, Jackie, Martin Goodman asks if Alan Davison would know what he was holding.^{[citation needed]}