At the second International Conference on Radiological Physics and Technology during the Japan Radiology Congress (JRC) 2023, held from April 13th to 16th this year, at the Pacifico Yokohama in Yokohama, Japan, Dr. Kunio Doi, former Editor-in-Chief of the RPT journal, was awarded the 23rd Gray Medal by the International Commission on Radiation Units and Measurements (ICRU).

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Dr. Doi was born in 1939 in Tokyo. After graduating from Waseda University in 1962, he joined Dai Nippon Toryo Co., Ltd., where he began researching image quality evaluation of screen-film systems for radiographic images. After receiving his Ph.D. from Waseda University in 1969, he went to the United States to work as a Research Associate at the Department of Radiology in the University of Chicago. There, under Professor Kurt Rossmann, a top researcher on X-ray film graininess, he conducted comprehensive research on the quantitative evaluation of image quality using various metrics based on Fourier transform.

However, in 1975, Professor Rossmann passed away suddenly, which was a major turning point in Dr. Doi´s career. In 1977, Dr. Doi became the first director of the newly established Kurt Rossmann Laboratories for Radiologic Image Research at the Department of Radiology and was promoted to the position of professor at the University of Chicago.

At the Rossmann Laboratories, Professor Doi focused on digital imaging, whose utility just begun, and he was the first to come up with the concept of computer-aided diagnosis (CAD) to take advantage of digital imaging and contribute to the daily work of radiologists. CAD research gained popularity in the 1990s, and a research group led by Professor Doi at the University of Chicago received numerous grants for various CAD-related research projects, establishing itself as a world leader in CAD research. The first FDA-approved CAD system produced by a venture company in the United States was also initially developed at the University of Chicago. As a result, Professor Doi established CAD using computerized image analysis and artificial intelligence, which is now recognized as a method that improves diagnoses using clinical images worldwide.

Professor Doi also served in the ICRU committees for 22 years, from 1989 to 2010, and many of the ICRU reports he was involved in have been translated into Japanese.

Professor Doi has been the Editor-in-Chief of this journal since its first issue in 2008, and he proposed the concept of a unique journal for fostering young researchers. He was appointed as President of Gunma Prefectural College of Health Sciences from 2009 to 2015 while continuing to serve as the Editor-in-Chief of this journal until 2021. Over the years, he has laid the foundations for the journal to obtain an impact factor today. It gives us great pleasure to announce that Professor Doi has been awarded the Gray Medal, and we would like to inform our readers about it here.