Nobel Prizes and Laureates

Nobel Prizes and Laureates

The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2003
Paul C. Lauterbur, Sir Peter Mansfield

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Sir Peter Mansfield - Facts

Sir Peter Mansfield

Sir Peter Mansfield

Born: 9 October 1933, London, United Kingdom

Died: 8 February 2017

Affiliation at the time of the award: University of Nottingham, School of Physics and Astronomy, Nottingham, United Kingdom

Prize motivation: "for their discoveries concerning magnetic resonance imaging"

Field: diagnostic imaging

Prize share: 1/2


Protons and neutrons in the atomic nucleus behave like small spinning magnets. Accordingly, atoms and molecules assume a certain orientation in a magnetic field. This can be dislodged, however, by radio waves of certain frequencies that are characteristic for different atoms. By developing calculation methods during the 1970s, Peter Mansfield contributed to use of the phenomenon to create images of the human body's interior. The incidence of hydrogen atoms is measured and differences in the water content of different tissues provides a basis for magnetic resonance imaging.

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