RSNA 2025 Outstanding Educator
Nestor Müller, MD, PhD
An internationally recognized educator in chest radiology and respiratory physiology, Nestor Müller, MD, PhD has mentored hundreds of students, residents and faculty throughout his career. Dr. Müller is professor emeritus at The University of British Columbia (UBC) and remains active on the cardiothoracic radiology team at UBC and Vancouver General Hospital (VGH). He was previously chair of the Department of Radiology at UBC, head and medical director of the Department of Radiology at VGH, and regional medical director of Diagnostic Imaging at Vancouver Coastal Health.
“Dr. Müller’s career is a model of academic excellence and dedication to education,” said RSNA President, Umar Mahmood, MD, PhD. “His ability to translate complex cardiothoracic imaging concepts into clear, impactful teaching has influenced generations of radiologists around the world. RSNA is proud to honor him for his extraordinary contributions to radiology education and mentorship.”
Dr. Müller has published 490 articles in peer-reviewed journals and is the author or co-author of 17 seminal radiology books, including Diagnosis of Diseases of the Chest, High-resolution CT of the Lung, Imaging of the Chest, and books for both the American College of Radiology and the Brazilian College of Radiology. He currently is the section editor of pulmonary imaging in the pulmonary and critical care medicine section for UpToDate, a suite of online publications through Wolters Kluwer.
Recognized in 2003 by the American Journal of Roentgenology as being an outstanding teacher and scholar, Dr. Müller has supervised more than 100 graduate students.
He has been an invited speaker at more than 200 national and international meetings. He gave the RSNA 1991 Annual Oration in Diagnostic Radiology entitled High-Resolution CT: Insights into Morphology and Pathophysiology of Lung Disease. He is a past president of the Society of Thoracic Radiology.
Dr. Müller has been recognized by numerous international societies, including gold medals from the Brazilian College of Radiology and the Society of Thoracic Radiology. He has been recognized with honorary fellowship with the Faculty of Radiologists of the Royal College of Surgeons, in Ireland and honorary membership in the Japan Radiological Society. For his work in chest radiology research and education, he received honorary presidential medals from the European Society of Thoracic Imaging and the Fleischner Society.
Renowned as an inspiring and innovative educator, he was recognized by UBC with several consecutive years of the radiology resident teaching award and received the gold medal from the UBC Department of Radiology. He was also awarded the Vancouver Medical, Dental, and Allied Staff Association Bobby Miller Award for Excellence in Teaching.
Dr. Müller received his medical degree from Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. He did a rotating internship and a residency in pediatrics at the University of Manitoba in Canada, respiratory research at the University of Toronto and received his PhD in medical sciences at the University of Toronto. Subsequently, he did a residency in radiology at The University of British Columbia followed by a fellowship in chest radiology at the University of California, San Francisco, before joining the Radiology Staff at the VGH and UBC.