Birmingham, AL – The Southeastern Chapter of the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging (SECSNMMI) will honor Norman E. Bolus with the presentation of the Marshall Brucer 
Award, the highest honor the SECSNMMI can bestow upon a member. The Brucer Award will be presented to Mr. Bolus at the 2017 SECSNMMI Annual Meeting, October 6-8, 2017 in Birmingham, Alabama, recognizing his many years of service to nuclear medicine as well as his leadership in organized nuclear medicine at the local, regional chapter and national levels.
The Marshall Brucer Award is given at the Southeastern Chapter meeting to a chapter member who has dedicated their life to the specialty of nuclear medicine and given distinguished service to the chapter.
There are few people who, during a lifetime, make a substantial impact on a specialty in medicine. The Southeastern Chapter was fortunate to have had such a person amongst its members – Marshall Brucer.
He became the first chairman of the Medical Division of the Oak Ridge Institute for Nuclear Studies in 1948. Brucer coined the term “nuclear medicine” and convinced the U. S. Atomic Energy Commission to allow use of radiotracers in medicine, as long as the physicians using the tracers were well trained (setting the groundwork for the residency structure in place today). He was an author, storyteller and educator, and almost single-handedly organized and formed the Southeastern Chapter of the Society of Nuclear Medicine. He served as the Chapter’s first president (1957-1959) and was the 5th president of the national society. The Marshall Brucer Award was created in his honor in 1991.
Bolus is an Assistant Professor and Director of the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) Master of Science in Nuclear Medicine Technology (NMT) Program in the Clinical and Diagnostic Sciences (CDS) Department in the UAB School of Health Professions (SHP). An entry-level master degree for nuclear medicine technologists, which began in Fall 2015 at UAB. He is also the Interim-Director of the Master of Science in Health Physics Program within SHP and CDS at UAB, which he was instrumental in the formation of the program, which began in Fall 2016.
Bolus started his first professional association leadership role as Secretary of the Alabama Society of Nuclear Medicine (ASNM) in 1994. He went on the serve in every elected capacity for the ASNM (Secretary, Treasurer, President-Elect, Executive Board) and is a two time Past President (1998-1999 and 2005-2006). He currently volunteers as the ASNM Associate Treasurer, a position he has held since 2011. He has given lectures at nearly every annual meeting since 1999.
For the Southeastern Chapter, Bolus has served as Treasurer of the SECSNMMI-TS (2006-2010), co-program chair numerous years since 2009, President-Elect in 2010, President in 2011-2012, newsletter editor from 2014-2016, and is currently the chair of the finance committee.
On the national level, for the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging (SNNMI) and the SNMMI-Technologist Section (SNMMI-TS), Bolus has served on many committees beginning with an Educational Committee Task Force that developed the 4th edition of the Curriculum Guide for the SNMMI-TS in 2007-2008. He served as chair of the Educators Committee from 2009-2011 and was a founding board member of the Nuclear Medicine Advanced Associates (NMAA) Council in 2010, as an offshoot of being a member of the NMAA Task Force Committee for the SNMMI-TS. Also in 2010-2011, Bolus was a member of the Uptake Newsletter Editorial Board prior to becoming the Editor in Chief of the Journal of Nuclear Medicine Technology (JNMT) in 2012. One issue of the Uptake that he was issue editor received a ”Gold Level Award” from MarCom Awards. Bolus has served on the educators committee, membership committee, publications committee, continuing education committee and several task forces for both the SNMMI and SNMMI-TS. Bolus is currently serving out the last of six years as Editor in Chief of the JNMT, which ends on December 31st, 2017. In June of 2017, Bolus was elected as President-Elect of the SNMMI-TS, which is a three year commitment as President-Elect, President and Immediate Past President.
In addition to all of these activities, Bolus has 19 peer-reviewed articles, 32 additional articles, 9 book contributions as a chapter author or editor, co-authored 2 books (one being the 4th edition of the Steves Review of Nuclear Medicine which is the primary review book used by graduating students in NMT to review for their board exams), and has had over 100 presentations varying from poster presentations to invited lectures. Bolus is a lifetime member of the ASNM, member of the SNMMI since 1993, member of the Health Physics Society since 1993, member of the American Society of Nuclear Cardiology since 2001 and recently became a member of the American Society of Radiologic Technologists. Since 2014, Bolus has also been a member of the DOTmed HealthCare Business Editorial Advisory Board.
Bolus has received several professional honors foremost being named a Fellow of the SNMMI-TS in 2012 and the Distinguished Service Award from the SECSNMMI-TS in 2013 as well as receiving the Outstanding Educator Award from the SNMMI-TS in 2010.
Bolus graduated with a baccalaureate degree in biology with a minor in chemistry in 1988 from UAB followed by a baccalaureate degree in Nuclear Medicine Technology in 1989 also from UAB. Bolus started his nuclear medicine career as a staff technologist at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) Hospital in 1989. In 1991, he transferred to the UAB NMT program he had graduated from three years prior as a staff technologist-teaching lab assistant. In 1993, he became a teacher/instructor in the program. In 1998 Bolus attained a Master Degree in Public Health in Occupational Health & Safety with an emphasis on radiation safety. In 1999, Bolus became an Assistant Professor in the program. Upon the retirement of the UAB NMT Program Director in 2007, he was selected after a national search as Program Director of the UAB NMT Program. In 2011, he obtained a second master degree from the UAB School of Public Health, a Master of Science of Public Health in Environmental Toxicology. His thesis was, “Identification and Critical Review of Research Relevant to Radiation Exposure During Computed Tomography Scan Procedures”.
On a personal note, Bolus was a co-founder, along with his brother Paul Bolus, of the Annual St. Elias Lebanese Food and Cultural Festival which began in 1999 in Birmingham, Alabama. The annual festival now serves over 8,500 patrons Lebanese food over a two day festival each year. This festival has donated in excess of $465,000 over 19 years to local, national and international charities. In recognition of this achievement in 2014, he and his brother were inducted into The Knights of the Pontifical Equestrian Order of St. Gregory the Great, the highest honor a layperson can receive in the Catholic Church, for outstanding community service, stewardship and leadership.
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