John Shepherd, Ph.D. (Eng. Physics) is an Assistant Professor in Residence in the Department of Radiology. He joined UCSF in January of 1999 from Hologic, inc. where he was a Principal Scientist and had the management role of Science Support Coordinator.

At Hologic, he played a key role in the company’s development of bone density, body composition, and imaging products. He was responsible for the theoretical work that is the basis of Hologic’s fan beam specific mass measure and is listed as the principal inventor on the related patent.

Since he as been at UCSF, he as published over 32 peer reviewed publications and presented over 70 presentations, and been awarded two additional patents in the field of tissue composition measurement. He coined (with Dr. Brismar) the new measurement for whole body pediatric bone measure WBMAD, a BMD measure independent of body size.

He is a member of the International Committee on Radiation Measure and Units (ICRU) Committee on Bone Densitometry. He is also involved with the International Society of Clinical Densitometry (ISCD) as Certification Course Faculty, Southwestern US Technical Representative, member of the Scientific Advisory Board, and Chairman the Committee on Standards of Bone Measurement. Dr. Shepherd was co-president to the 15th International Bone Densitometry Workshop, 1st and 2nd International Breast Densitometry Workshops, and the Non-spine Quality Assurance Symposium. He serves on the Editorial Board for the Journal of Clinical Densitometry.