Robert De Kemp BASc, MSc, PhD, PEng, PPhys

Dr. Robert deKemp is Head Imaging Physicist in Cardiac Imaging at the University of Ottawa Heart Institute. He is also an Associate Professor of Medicine, Engineering and Physics and Medical Scientist in the Faculty of Medicine and a member of the Faculty of Graduate and Post-Doctoral Studies at the University of Ottawa. In addition, deKemp is an Adjunct Professor of Physics and a member of the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research at Carleton University.

DeKemp obtained his BASc in Systems Design Engineering at the University of Waterloo in Waterloo, Ontario. The following work in the remote sensing and medical imaging industry, he completed an MSc in medical physics and a Ph.D. in electrical and computer engineering in the E. S. Garnett Department of Nuclear Medicine at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario. He moved to Ottawa in 1994 to help establish the National Cardiac PET Centre at the Heart Institute.

DeKemp is Canada’s leading expert in the physics of cardiac PET imaging. He pioneered the application of Rb-82 PET perfusion imaging in Canada, including automated Rb-82 infusion systems in routine use at the Heart Institute since 1997.

He is a past Director of the Ottawa Medical Physics Institute at Carleton University and an Editorial Board member of the Journal of Nuclear Cardiology.

DeKemp’s interest is in medical imaging physics and engineering, including Positron Emission Tomography (PET), single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT), X-ray computed tomography (CT), X-ray angiography, and multimodality image fusion.

He is developing innovative tracer kinetic and statistical parametric methods for serial imaging of PET blood flow and metabolism, and 3-D fusion imaging of coronary angiography and myocardial perfusion. His pioneering research in singles transmission for 3-D PET has greatly improved PET attenuation correction and is now a commercial standard for 3-D PET in the world.