Dr. Renee Moadel (BE EE 1987)
Renee Moadel is a 1987 electrical engineering graduate (who also double majored in
computer science). She is now an attending physician at the Department of Radiology,
Division of Nuclear Medicine at the Montefiore Medical Center, Albert Einstein College
of Medicine in New York City. What trajectory did her education and career take to
get her to her current position?
Renee worked at Brookhaven National Laboratory in a Nuclear Medicine research facility doing medical imaging-based software for research applications. This piqued her interest in the medical field and ultimately helped her decide on a career in medicine. Prior to medical school, she also worked for Symbol Technologies (now Zebra) in digital and firmware design, and at an international bank programming calculus-based finance software. Today, as a nuclear medicine physician, her focus is on the use of therapeutic nuclear isotopes in oncology with a focus on thyroid, liver and prostate cancers.
She regards her degree in engineering as an extremely powerful tool and truly values her education in Stony Brook’s College of Engineering and Applied Sciences
“Most of the world doesn’t understand the math and physics behind how things work,” said Renee. “With our technical training and experience, we not only understand the inner-workings, we have the ability to create.”
This ability to know and create has helped her throughout her career, enabling her to do such varied things as digital and firmware design, research medical imaging software, calculus based finance software and medical school. As a result of her engineering knowledge, she has a deeper understanding of medical imaging technology and reconstruction software, as well as the technical aspects within the medical field, and she utilizes this knowledge to help her patients.
What does she remember about Stony Brook? The library was built backwards and there was a “bridge to nowhere” (originally constructed to connect the student union to the library). Synonymously there was an on-campus gathering place called “The End of the Bridge” where there was always a good time to be had. She got involved with many sports including karate, swimming, dance, running, joined clubs such as Hillel, and enjoyed the plays and concerts.
At Stony Brook, Professor Kenneth Short inspired her to be her best self, she says. Her senior design project entailed a field trip to Stony Brook Medical Center to meet with a pediatric endocrinologist. With Professor Short’s guidance, she and her lab partner designed a stadiometer - a device for measuring patient height. This was truly a formative experience in Renee’s ultimate decision to pursue a career in medicine.
Renee’s career demonstrates that an education in electrical or computer engineering, in addition to interesting engineering positions, can also lead to cross-cutting careers in medicine, law, business and government.