Peter Mansfield

Peter Mansfield (1933–2017) was a British physicist whose work on magnetic resonance signals and spatial encoding helped make magnetic resonance imaging practical. He shared the 2003 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Paul Lauterbur.

Magnetic resonance imaging: A medical imaging technique that uses magnetic fields and radio waves to produce images of internal body structures. Mansfield’s signal-processing and rapid-imaging methods helped establish MRI as a practical diagnostic tool.
Nuclear magnetic resonance: The absorption and emission of radio-frequency energy by atomic nuclei in a magnetic field. Mansfield adapted its measurable signals into methods for locating and imaging structures inside the body.
University of Nottingham: A public research university in Nottingham, England. Mansfield conducted much of his MRI research at the university, where he built a long-running research group.
Richard Ernst: A Swiss chemist who advanced nuclear magnetic resonance through Fourier-transform and multidimensional techniques. Ernst’s signal-processing advances belong to the wider NMR toolkit Mansfield drew upon and extended.
2003 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine: The Nobel Prize awarded to Paul Lauterbur and Peter Mansfield for discoveries concerning magnetic resonance imaging. The award recognized the imaging discoveries Mansfield developed alongside Lauterbur’s spatial encoding work.
Magnetic field gradient: A spatial variation in magnetic-field strength used to make resonance frequency depend on position. Mansfield used gradients to encode spatial information in magnetic resonance signals.
University of London: A federal university comprising colleges and research institutions in London, England. Mansfield earned his doctorate there before beginning the research career that led to MRI.
Erwin Hahn: An American physicist who discovered the spin-echo phenomenon in nuclear magnetic resonance. Hahn’s spin-echo discovery supplied a signal phenomenon that Mansfield investigated for imaging.
Echo-planar imaging: An MRI technique that collects much of the data for an image after a single excitation. Mansfield developed this rapid acquisition method, enabling images to be captured far faster than conventional MRI.
Fourier transform: A mathematical operation that represents a signal as a combination of frequencies. Mansfield’s image reconstruction methods used Fourier analysis to convert measured signals into spatial images.

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Raymond DamadianRelated: Mansfield’s imaging methods complemented the pioneering scanner work associated with Damadian.