Peter Mansfield

For the historian specialising in Arabs and the Middle East, see Peter Mansfield (historian).

Peter Mansfield
Born	9 October 1933 (1933-10-09) (age 78) Lambeth, London
Nationality	British
Institutions	University of Illinois, University of Nottingham
Alma mater	Queen Mary College, University of London
Doctoral advisor	Jack Powles
Known for	Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Notable awards	Fellow of the Royal Society (1987), Knighted (1993), Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (2003)

Sir Peter Mansfield, FRS, (born 9 October 1933), is a British physicist who was awarded the 2003 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his discoveries concerning magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). The Nobel Prize was shared with Paul Lauterbur, who also contributed to the development of MRI. Sir Peter is a professor at the University of Nottingham.

The Nobel Prize in Physics in 1952, which went to Felix Bloch and Edward Purcell, was for the development of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), the scientific principle behind MRI. For decades magnetic resonance was used mainly for studying the chemical structure of substances, and Mansfield's first project in this field was to develop a portable, transistorised Earth's field NMR (EFNMR) spectrometer in the late 1950s.

It was not until the 1970s with Damadian's, Lauterbur's and Mansfield's developments that NMR could be used to produce images of the body.

Mansfield is credited with showing how the radio signals from MRI can be mathematically analyzed, making interpretation of the signals into a useful image a possibility. He is also credited with discovering how fast imaging could be possible by developing the MRI protocol called echo-planar imaging. Echo-planar imaging allows T2* weighted images to be collected many times faster than previously possible. It also has made functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) feasible.

Mansfield came from humble beginnings in South East London, attending secondary school in Peckham. He left school at 15, and became a printer. He took A levels in night school. He then studied physics at Queen Mary College, London, graduating with a BSc in 1959 and a PhD in 1962.^[1]

He has worked in the Department of Physics at the University of Nottingham since 1964.

Awards and honours

• 1983 Gold Medal of the Society of Magnetic Resonance in Medicine
• 1984 Joint award of the Royal Society Welcome Foundation Gold Medal and Prize.
• 1986 Elected Fellow of Queen Mary College (now Queen Mary and Westfield College), London University
• 1987 Elected Fellow of the Royal Society, London
• 1987 Elected President of the Society of Magnetic Resonance in Medicine
• 1988 Awarded Duddell Medal and Prize by the Institute of Physics
• 1988 Awarded Silvanus Thompson Medal by the British Institute of Radiology.
• 1989 Antoine Béclère Medal from the International Society of Radiology and the Antoine Béclère Institute in Paris.
• 1990 Royal Society Mullard Award (joint with John Mallard & Jim Hutchinson)
• 1992 International Society of Magnetic Resonance (ISMAR) prize (joint with P. Lauterbur)
• 1993 Knighted
• 1993 Silver Plaque of the European Society of Magnetic Resonance in Medicine and Biology.
• 1993 Elected Honorary Fellow of the Royal College of Radiology and Honorary Member of the British Institute of Radiology
• 1994 Elected Honorary Member of the Society of Magnetic Resonance Imaging and Fellow of the Society of Magnetic Resonance
• 1995 Garmisch-Partenkirchen Prize for MRI.
• 1995 Gold Medal of the European Congress of Radiology and the European Association of Radiology.
• 1997 Honorary Fellow of the Institute of Physics
• 2003 Nobel Prize for Medicine with Paul Lauterbur.

References

1. ^ "Queen Mary, University of London Notable Alumni and Staff". http://www.qmul.ac.uk/alumni/alumninetwork/notablealumni/index.html. Retrieved 2007-09-23. 

External links

• University of Nottingham: Peter Mansfield homepage
• Nobel Prize 2003 Press Release
• Appearance on Desert Island Discs
• Peter Mansfield US Patents
• Peter Mansfield autobiography

Persondata
Name	Mansfield, Peter
Alternative names
Short description	English physicist known for magnetic resonance imaging
Date of birth	9 October 1933
Place of birth	London, England
Date of death
Place of death