Professor Anatoly I. Shekhter (January 18, 1935 - November 26, 2020)

Abstract

On November 26, 2020, sad news befell us: at the age of 85, one of the most famous and respected Soviet and Russian radiologists, Professor Anatoly I. Shekhter, died after an illness.

For decades, Anatoly Ilyich carried knowledge, light and goodness to many generations of students and doctors. His name is widely known in our country and abroad. His whole life from birth was associated with medicine.

Full Text

Photo. Anatoly I. Shekhter

Anatoly I. Shekhter was born in Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine, 6 years before the war, into a family of doctors. His father, Ilya A. Shekhter (1907–1975), after the war, was a famous Soviet radiologist, doctor of medical sciences, professor, and honored master of sciences and engineering. He participated in the World War II and worked as the head of the evacuation hospital in Alma Ata (Kazakhstan). In 1943, the Shekhter family moved to Moscow. From 1954 to 1975, Professor I.A. Shekhter was the head of the Department of Rontgenology and Radiology of the N.A. Semashko Moscow Institute of Medicine and Dentistry, which was established by him. Following the family tradition, the younger brother of Anatoly I. Shekhter, Yuri I. Shekhter, also became a famous Russian radiologist.

Professor I.A. Shekhter also influenced the choice of life path of his eldest son, and in 1958, Anatoly I. Shekhter graduated from the Second Moscow State Medical Institute (now the N.I. Pirogov Russian National Research Medical University). The medical biography of the graduate, like many young specialists of that time, started with the work of a general practitioner in the virgin lands, in Kazakhstan.

Upon his return to Moscow in 1964, Anatoly I. Shekhter entered the Department of Radiation Diagnostics and Therapy (Roentgenology and Radiology) of the I.M. Sechenov First Moscow State Medical Institute (now the Sechenov University), where he worked until his last day. Most of his life was inextricably linked with the university and his favorite department.

For many years, radiation diagnostics of respiratory diseases has become one of the main fields of the scientific and teaching activities of Anatoly I. Shekhter. In 1964, he defended his Ph.D. thesis on the clinical and radiological diagnosis of lung lesions. In 1972, he defended his doctorate thesis with the topic of radiation diagnosis of chronic inflammatory diseases of the lungs. Since 1975, Anatoly I. Shekhter started to study a new scientific topic, radiation diagnostics of diseases of the mammary glands. In 1980, he was awarded the title of “Professor.”

For decades, the teaching and scientific work of Anatoly I. Shekhter was performed in close cooperation with the famous heads of the legendary Department of Radiation Diagnostics and Therapy of First Medical Institute, Professors Leonid D. Lindenbraten and Leonid A. Yudin and Academician Sergei K. Ternov.

Professor Anatoly I. Shekhter was one of the most outstanding and most famous professors of the department. He is an author of hundreds of scientific articles and co-author of three monographs and a textbook, as well as several educational materials. A total of 16 Ph.D. theses were prepared under his supervision.

For his active and fruitful work, Professor A.I. Schechter was awarded many prizes, namely, the medal For the Development of Virgin Lands in 1958, the badge Excellent Worker of Public Health in 1970, and the medal Veteran of Labor in 1980. In 2008, Anatoly I. Shekhter became a laureate of the Professor Yu.N. Sokolov badge of honor.

Anatoly I. Shekhter was a highly cultured man. He was famous with his professionalism, benevolence, optimism, and desire to help young colleagues. He was loved and respected by students, residents, graduate students, and colleagues of the department.

In addition to medicine, Anatoly I. Shekhter knew literature, poetry, and remembered and recited hundreds of poems by heart. Some of his favorites were the lines from the famous poem by Boris Pasternak:

“In everything, I want to reach

For the very essence.

In work, in searching for the path,

In the heart’s turmoil.

For the essence of days gone by,

For their causes,

For foundations, for roots,

For the core.

I want to live, to think, to feel, to love,

To make discoveries

Always grasping the thread

Of fates and events”

He is retained in our memory. The cherished memory of Professor Anatoly I. Shekhter will always dwell in our hearts.

On behalf of the Russian Society of Rontgenologists and Radiologists (RSRR) and the Moscow Society of Radiologists of RSRR (MSR RSRR) V.E. Sinitsyn,
S.P. Morozov