A West Virginia University-trained physician who went on to medical acclaim for his expertise of the nervous system is being honored by his alma mater.
Dr. Ralph Heinz of Duke University will receive the 2007 Eberly College Alumni Recognition Award for his career that has also included stints at Yale, Emory University and the University of Pittsburgh. He earned an undergraduate degree from WVU in 1951.
Heinz is an authority on neuroradiology, that field of radiology that focuses on the nervous system. He introduced the practice to the Southeast at Emory in 1964.
At Emory, he garnered several research grants from the National Institute for Neurological and Communication Disorders and Stroke, and served on that organizations training committee from 1965-69.
He also held appointments at Yale during that time, and spent 11 years at chairman of the Department of Radiology at the University of Pittsburgh. In 1978, he moved on to Duke University, where he formed that schools Department of Neuroradiology and remains today as a faculty member and researcher.
Heinz won aBest TeacherAward from Duke in 1978 and recently earned a Gold Medal from the American Society of Neuroradiologybecoming just the 17th medical professional in the country to hold such a distinction.
He was a high achiever early on. He came to WVU on a basketball scholarship in 1947 but left the team in junior year to solely concentrate on academics. At WVU , he won the Sigma Chi Province Scholarship Award and was in the Alpha Epsilon Delta Pre-Med Honorary.
He also served in WVU s Mountain and Sphinx honoraries and was president of Fi Batar Capar.
While in medical school at the University of Pennsylvania, he was president of his class, vice-president of the Student Medical Association, and won the Dr. I.S. Ravdin Award forBest Student on Surgery,before graduating in 1955.
He served his residency at Philadelphia General Hospital, where he was chief resident from 1961-62 and won first prize for Best Scientific Paper from the Pennsylvania Radiologic Society.
He also played two seasons of semi-pro basketball with the Wheeling Blues.
Heinz has written a neuroradiology textbook and has also authored some 130 scientific papers and 32 book chapters.
The Eberly Colleges Alumni Recognition Program was established in 1998 by the Colleges Advisory Board. It honors the spirit and spark that broadly educated arts and sciences people bring to their professional life and intellectual pursuits.
For more information, contact Dr. Rudy Almasy, associate dean of the Eberly College, at rudy.almasy@mail.wvu.edu or 304-293-4611.