Paul Lauterbur

Paul Lauterbur was an American chemist whose use of magnetic-field gradients to encode spatial information made two-dimensional nuclear magnetic resonance imaging possible.

Magnetic resonance imaging: A medical imaging technique that uses magnetic fields and radio waves to produce images of the body. Lauterbur’s spatial encoding principle became a foundation of this imaging method.
Nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy: A method for identifying molecular structure by measuring nuclear magnetic resonance signals. Lauterbur began with a technique designed for chemical analysis, not imaging.
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2003: The 2003 Nobel Prize awarded to Paul Lauterbur and Peter Mansfield for discoveries concerning MRI. The award recognized Lauterbur’s and Mansfield’s complementary contributions to magnetic resonance imaging.
Magnetic resonance imaging in medicine: The clinical use of magnetic resonance imaging to diagnose and monitor disease without ionizing radiation. Spatially encoded NMR made noninvasive medical imaging of soft tissues feasible.
X-ray computed tomography: An imaging method that reconstructs cross-sectional images from measurements of transmitted X-rays. CT reconstructs anatomy from X-ray attenuation, whereas Lauterbur’s method maps nuclear resonance signals.
Nuclear magnetic resonance: A physical phenomenon in which atomic nuclei absorb and re-emit radio-frequency energy in a magnetic field. Lauterbur adapted this signal-producing phenomenon to reveal spatial structure.
Nuclear magnetic resonance imaging: An imaging method that uses nuclear magnetic resonance signals to map internal structure. This was the imaging technique Lauterbur demonstrated with spatially varying magnetic fields.
Peter Mansfield: A British physicist who developed mathematical and technical methods that made MRI faster and more practical. The Nobel committee paired Lauterbur’s imaging concept with Mansfield’s later advances.
Functional magnetic resonance imaging: An imaging method that tracks blood-oxygen changes as an indirect measure of brain activity. Functional MRI applies magnetic resonance imaging to map changing brain activity.
Ultrasound imaging: An imaging technique that forms images from echoes of high-frequency sound waves. Ultrasound creates images through acoustic echoes rather than magnetic resonance.

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