Peter D. Esser ’61

Peter D. Esser ’61, of Smithtown, N.Y.; Jan. 31, 2023. He was a medical physicist at New York Presbyterian Hospital, then chief physicist at the Kreitchman PET Center. He was involved in research and developing improvements in nuclear medicine and PET technology. He received several patents and coauthored numerous research papers. He collaborated in the development of a “phantom” for the testing of PET equipment with Data Spectrum, which is still in use today. He was professor emeritus of clinical radiology in environmental health sciences and special lecturer in the department of radiology and the department of applied physics and applied mathematics at Columbia University. He held one of the National Science Foundation’s presidential internships in nuclear medicine at the Medical Research Center of Brookhaven National Laboratory. He was a past president of the American Board of Science in Nuclear Medicine and a member of the Nuclear Accreditation Committee of the American College of Radiology. He was an active member of numerous professional societies and was a fellow of the American College of Radiology and a fellow of the American College of Nuclear Medicine. He enjoyed photography. He is survived by his wife, Jean; two sons, including Jeffrey ’92; two daughters-in-law; and four grandchildren.