Staff

Lucas Gonzalez, B.S. is our most recent addition to our staff.  Lucas has a degree in Chemical Engineering (2016) from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.  After receiving his degrees, he enlisted in the Navy where he served for 5 1/2 years.  He was Electronics Technician Nuclear, 1st Class.  He trained on MTS635, one of the oldest high pressure reactors still in service.  From there, he was stationed on the USS Theodore Roosevelt (aircraft carrier) CVN71 out of San Diego.  He was a qualified reactor operator and reactor technician on the ship’s A4W reactor (the ship has two reactors).  He was deployed twice to the 7th Fleet (South China Seas) with Carrier Strike Group 9.  After that, the ship’s home port was changed to Bremerton, WA where he participated in overhauling the ship’s rod control system.  He was honorably discharged in August 2022.  He moved back to the Chicago area and joined the Cyclotron Facility in April 2023.  His move from the Navy to Radiopharmaceutical Product and Quality Assurance/Control has been seamless.

Dr. Ghosh received his Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of Calcutta where he focused on radiometals.  He worked at the Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics after his Ph.D.  He then moved to the Delft Institute of Technology in the Netherlands for a year.  There his work focused on ¹⁶⁶Ho production used with microspheres for the treatment of patients with liver cancer.  He continued his overseas experience at RIKEN in Japan, where he worked for just under a year and a half.  He used his experience in radiometals to work on the production of  ²¹¹At and other solid target isotopes.  He then returned to India and was involved in clinical production of drugs with a private company.  His work included running the cyclotron, Quality Control, and production of drugs.  He joined our Facility in June of 2021.

Dr. Santosh Alluri is the newest member of our Facility. He comes to the University of Chicago from Yale University.  There he worked on radiotracer development involving medicinal chemistry, organic synthesis, radiochemical synthesis, metabolism measurement and analysis, pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics by PET, and clinical research. He is a qualified radiopharmaceutical production (GMP) chemist for clinical research. He has operated a variety of nucleophilic substitution 18-F modules and also worked on 11-C compounds.  In addition, he has operated cyclotrons for isotope manufacturing and delivery.

Steven Montner, M.D., is the Chair of the Department of Radiology.  He specializes in pulmonary imaging, analyzing and interpreting chest radiographs and CT scans for thoracic disease and has expertise in interstitial lung disease.  He is active in the Radiological Society of North America and the Society of Thoracic Imaging.  Even before taking over the Chairmanship, he was integrally involved in the operations, budgeting, management, planning and the programmatic goals of the Facility. He has shown enthusiastic support for our operations.  Dr. Montner is the immediate past president of the medical staff organization.  

Aytekin Oto, M.D., M.B.A. is the Past Chair of the Department of Radiology and Professor of Radiology and Surgery.  He is now Dean for Clinical Affairs at the University of Chicago and head of the faculty practice plan.  His guidance and assistance in running the Cyclotron Facility are sorely missed.  He was key in establishing the Facility’s ability to produce and distribute radio-pharmaceutics to facilities and hospitals not only in the Greater Chicago area but also to locations throughout the Upper Midwest of the United States.  

David Paushter, M.D., FACR, is the past Chair of the Department of Radiology.  His support was critical to re-establishing the Facility.    Dr. Paushter worked to establish internal and external advisory committees and helped to make not only the UChicago medical community aware of the Cyclotron Facility but also the medical community in the greater Chicago area.