Nuclear Medicine Physicist, UR Alum David A. Weber, Ph.D., Dies

Nuclear medicine physicist David A. Weber, Ph.D., who worked at University of Rochester Medical Center from 1970 to 1987, died at his Pittsford home March 31. He was 77. 

Weber was a scientist, educator, and an international expert in radiation dose measurement during his long career. At URMC, he served as an associate professor in the Department of Radiology, now called Imaging Sciences, and acting chief of the Division of Nuclear Medicine from 1974-1975. 

In 1978, he received the National Institutes of Health Fogarty Senior International Fellowship to study bone repair in elderly adults with hip fractures at Lund University Hospital in Sweden.

Imaging Sciences Chair David Waldman, M.D., Ph.D., was Weber’s last graduate student at URMC and has fond memories of his mentorship.

“He was an all-around good guy who focused on honesty and integrity in all that he did,” Waldman said. “His tutelage helped shape my career and so many others who benefited from his expertise and leadership.”

A graduate of St. Lawrence University, he earned a doctorate in Radiation Biology and Biophysics at the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry in 1971. He completed fellowship training in Biophysics at Roswell Park Cancer Institute.

He served as a technical expert for the International Atomic Energy Agency and chaired the Society for Nuclear Medicine’s Medical Internal Radiation Dose Committee, compiling a handbook of radionuclide usage that is widely used in the field. 

Weber also led research and worked at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, Rochester Institute of Technology, Brookhaven National Laboratory, SUNY-Stony Brook, University of California-Davis, and Department of Veterans Affairs in Bedford, Mass., and Washington, D.C., before retiring in 2006.

He is survived by his wife, Sandra, two children and six grandchildren. A memorial service and reception will begin at 9 a.m., Saturday, May 7 at the Interfaith Chapel at University of Rochester.