Shirley McCarthy

Shirley McCarthy is a professor emerita of radiology and biomedical imaging. She attended college at SUNY Albany, where she majored in biology and decided to go on to graduate school after her biology teacher suggested that she should pursue a PhD. While in a doctoral program in mammalian physiology at Cornell, she became interested in the clinical aspects of physiology and did not like experimenting on animals, so decided to go to medical school. While completing her PhD, she entered Yale Medical School and discovered that she enjoyed diagnostic radiology, so did her residency at Yale and then a fellowship in cross-sectional imaging at UCSF, where she was on the ground floor of a new imaging technique called magnetic resonance imaging.

Dr. McCarthy returned to Yale in 1984 as an assistant professor in the Department of Diagnostic Radiology, with a secondary appointment in obstetrics and gynecology and became internationally known for her expertise in pelvic MRI, having published almost 200 scientific manuscripts, abstracts, reviews, chapters, and books. Among other works, she was co-editor of important textbooks including Magnetic Resonance of the Reproductive System (1987) and Diagnostic Imaging for Reproductive Failure (1998). She held a number of administrative positions, including co-chair of Yale’s Women Faculty Forum.

She has been awarded multiple Best Doctor awards, elected as a fellow in the International Society of Magnetic Resonance, and the Society of Body Computed Tomography. In retirement, she is involved with clean energy initiatives and programs in her town to increase native plantings for wildlife and human health.