To celebrate the scientific legacy and spirit of the late Dr. Britton Chance (1913–2010) and his 100th birthday, the Britton Chance International Symposium on Metabolic Imaging and Spectroscopy was held at the Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania on June 18–19th, 2013. The symposium brought together over 200 physicists, engineers, biologists and clinicians from all over the world including Europe, Asia and North America. The latest research innovations and clinical progresses by optical, nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and nuclear medicine methods were presented and discussed extensively.