Prof. Noémi Perlmutter was born in Riga (Latvia) in 1932. She fled to Belgium at the breakout of the second world war. She escaped deportation under the label of a “hidden child”. After the war, she returned to school and subsequently to university, graduating as MD (Université Libre de Bruxelles). As a medical doctor, she trained in radiology. In the early 1960s, she visited and worked in several children’s hospitals in Paris, where she was introduced to paediatric radiologists Prof. Jacques Lefebvre and Prof. Jacques Sauvegrain. Subsequently, she made several trips to the United States of America (USA), where she met the American masters of paediatric radiology.

As a pioneer of paediatric radiology in Belgium, she first began work in this speciality at the Hôpital Saint Pierre in Brussels. In 1986, she was appointed Head of the Radiology Department at the Hôpital des Enfants Reine Fabiola, rapidly succeeding in installing a magnetic resonance imaging machine dedicated exclusively to children—a first in Belgium.

Noémi was appointed Professor of Radiology in 1980 and provided high-quality teaching to radiologists and paediatricians. She participated in numerous meetings in Europe and the USA; she stimulated the members of her team to attend. She had a particular interest in bone diseases in children. She was involved in several scientific societies, becoming an active member of the International Skeletal Society, Society of Pediatric Radiology (SPR), and European Society of Pediatric Radiology (ESPR) (being President in 1978 and organising the ESPR congress held in Brussels). Noémi Perlmutter was appointed an Honorary Member of SPR in 1991 and of ESPR in 1994.

In Belgium, thanks to her tenacity, she succeeded in attracting the interest of various political and administrative bodies to paediatric radiology, which led to greater recognition of the specialty and for several years Noémi held the role of President of the Paediatric Radiology section of the Royal Belgian Society of Radiology.

Passionate about her professional life, and also an expert in Arts and History, Noémi was a great “Boss”; enthusiastic, meticulous, and hard-working, but able nonetheless to combine seriousness with fun, showing a great sense of humour. Her favourite phrase when analysing a case of bone dysplasia was “Rare as a green dog”: something her students will always remember! Demanding not only of others, but also of herself, she trained her students with dedication, encouraging them to pursue an academic and clinical career in a climate of innovation.

A brilliant academic and also a loving wife, not only a mother of three, but also grandmother and great-grandmother, she left quietly on November 4, 2024, surrounded by her loving family.

On behalf of all her colleagues and students, we thank her and will remember her dearly.