Dr. Shankar Vallabhajosula was appointed as the Vice President of “Radiopharmaceutical Sciences” at Convergent Therapeutics on May 1st, 2023. Prior to joining the convergent formally, Dr. Shankar has been serving as the senior advisor and consultant for the last two years. Dr. Vallabhajosula is Professor Emeritus of radiochemistry/radiopharmacy in radiology at Weill Cornell Medicine (WCM) of Cornell University, New York, NY. He also served as the president and chief scientific officer (CSO) for four years at NCM USA, a radiopharmaceutical manufacturing company for positron emission tomography (PET) and targeted radionuclide therapy (TRT). He started his academic career in 1980; first at Mount Sinai Medical Center, and later at WCM in New York. Throughout his professional life, Dr. Vallabhajosula has been dedicated to the advancement of patient care through nuclear medicine. Dr. Vallabhajosula published more than 130 articles in major scientific journals and was responsible for obtaining more than twenty investigational new drugs (INDs) for positron emission tomography (PET) and therapeutic radiopharmaceuticals. In 2004, he received a new drug application (NDA) for the manufacture of [¹⁸F]Fludeoxyglucose (FDG) at WCM. As a research collaborator for two decades with Dr. Neil H. Bander, Dr. Shankar was actively involved in the development of radiolabeled anti-PSMA monoclonal antibodies for imaging and radioimmunotherapy (RIT) of metastatic prostate cancer.

Dr. Vallabhajosula received BS and MS degrees in pharmaceutical sciences in India, and Ph.D. in Biomedicinal Chemistry/Radiopharmacy from the University of Southern California. He has been an active member of the SNMMI, served as an associate editor of the Journal of Nuclear Medicine (1994-1998). For his contributions to the basic and clinical science of nuclear medicine, Dr. Shankar received the “Berson and Yalow award” in 2007 by the Greater New York Chapter of Nuclear Medicine, and “Lifetime achievement award” in 2022 by the general clinical nuclear medicine council of the SNMMI. Dr. Vallabhajosula published two single author textbooks; “Molecular Imaging: Radiopharmaceuticals for PET and SPECT” (Springer Verlag, 2009). A second and revised edition “Molecular Imaging and Targeted Therapy: Radiopharmaceuticals and Clinical Applications” (Springer Nature 2023).