(Dr. John Wild pictured with Rosalyn Queen, former Chair, Board of Trustees, Columbus Foundation ) Last week, Dr. John Wild passed away. Dr. Wild is widely recognized at the inventor of the ultrasound and he was honored for this distinction in 1998 by the Christopher Columbus Fellowship Foundation, an independent federal government agency (from time to time, the Foundation hires me to recommend worthy candidates for their awards programs).
Judith Shellenberger, executive director of the Foundation, sent a sweet note to Dr. Wild five years ago in which she wrote:
It was a great privilege to honor you with the Foundation’s first Frank Annunzio Award
in 1998 in Washington, D.C. The Foundation has bestowed the Frank Annunzio Award on many fine Americans since that time, but you were the first. I am proud that the Foundation’s Board acknowledged your great work through this award and chose you as its first recipient.
I had the pleasure of meeting this great man. What a wonderful sense of humor! I thought I’d share a little information about him as a reminder that great inventors are not just a product of the 19th century.
From the U.K. Telegraph: John Wild, who died on September 18 aged 95, was the father of ultrasound in medicine, having invented imaging techniques that became standard for tumour screening in general and the diagnosis of breast cancer in particular. Read more.