Jason A. Koutcher, MD, PhD, is an Emeritus Member of the Genitourinary Oncology Service of the Division of Solid Tumor Oncology, Department of Medicine, and of the Imaging and Spectroscopic Physics Service, Department of Medical Physics, at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK).

Dr. Koutcher, who was trained as both an oncologist and an imaging scientist, was a pioneer of in vivo cancer magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) and imaging and was among the first to use 31P and 19F spectroscopy and imaging methods to study tumor metabolism, tumor pH, and oxygenation. His work using proton spectroscopy for prostate cancer helped make it a viable clinical diagnostic tool. Dr. Koutcher‘s stellar academic trajectory was recognized by MSK through his promotion to Member in 1998 on the unmodified track, as well as his promotion to Attending Physicist.
 
At MSK, Dr. Koutcher established a small animal magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) facility, making state-of-the-art MRS and MRI technologies available to investigators across the entire institution, as well as the greater New York area. From 2003, when the Small Animal Imaging Core was established, until his retirement, Dr. Koutcher was both co-director of the entire Small Animal Imaging Core and Head of the MRI section of the Small Animal Imaging Core. All of the MRI scanners in the Small Animal MRI Imaging Core were thus obtained via grants, with Dr. Koutcher as the principal investigator.