Dr. Carolyn Anderson will be presented with the UW-Superior Alumni & Friends Foundation’s Distinguished Alumni Award at a Superior Soirée on Saturday, October 12. The award is presented to alumni whose successes serve as an inspiration for current and prospective students.

Anderson and four other alumni, faculty, staff and community members will be honored with the annual Alumni & Friends Awards at the semi-formal fundraising event, and proceeds will benefit both students and alumni. A Superior Soirée, held in the Yellowjacket Union, is open to everyone. Visit uwsuper.edu/Soiree to learn more and purchase tickets by October 4.

Originally from Superior, Anderson graduated from UWS in 1985 with her bachelor’s degree in chemistry and went on to earn a Ph.D. in inorganic chemistry at Florida State University. For more than 30 years, her pioneering research has laid the foundation for the growth of radiometal-based agents for diagnostic imaging and targeted radionuclide therapy of cancer, a field now known as theranostics.

She began her first faculty appointment at Washington University (WU) in St. Louis in 1993 as an assistant professor of radiology. After 20 years of research and developments at WU, she joined the University of Pittsburgh as a professor of radiology to establish a small animal imaging shared resource at the Hillman Cancer Center. In 2016 she became a professor in the Department of Medicine at Pitt and collaborated with clinician scientists to develop imaging agents.

In 2020, Anderson became the Simón-Ellebracht Professor of Medicinal Chemistry and professor of radiology at the University of Missouri (MU). She is also an associate director of the Ellis Fischel Cancer Center, performing ongoing research on theranostics. At MU, Anderson founded the Molecular Imaging and Theranostics Center and is highly active as a mentor to undergraduates, graduate students and postdoctoral fellows.

“Dr. Anderson’s career and dedication to her field, her pursuit of excellence, sets a shining example for the members of our Yellowjacket community today and for future generations,” said UW-Superior Chancellor Renée Wachter. 

Anderson has also received numerous honors for her work, including the Michael J. Welch Award, the Paul C. Aebersold award, the Georg de Hevesy Nuclear Pioneer Award from the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging, a Distinguished Investigator Award from the Academy of Radiology Research, and the Glenn T. Seaborg award in Nuclear Chemistry from the American Chemical Society.

With her inspirational achievements and groundbreaking research and dedication to the diagnosis and treatment of cancer, Dr. Carolyn Anderson is most certainly deserving of the 2024 Distinguished Alumni Award.