Niels A. Lassen

Niels Alexander Lassen (December 7, 1926 in Copenhagen - April 30, 1997 in Copenhagen) was a Danish medical doctor and pioneer of neuroimaging.

His father, H.C.A. Lassen, was professor at the University of Copenhagen, and Niels Lassen graduated as medical doctor from the same university in 1951. With his colleague Ole Munck he began in the 1950s to use radioactive isotopes for the measurement of the blood circulation in the brain, and in the beginning of the 1960s he together with David H. Ingvar from University of Lund began the development of methods for regional measurements on the brain with krypton-85 and xenon-133 isotopes. These efforts were summarized in a Scientific American article in 1978^[1]. He has been called the greatest Danish brain researcher since Niels Steensen.

He was employed at the Bispebjerg Hospital from 1962 to 1996 and wrote more than 600 articles. He was married to Edda Sveinsdottir who as a computer scientist helped with the development of the (at that time) advanced computer technology for image construction of the regional brain measurements.

There is a Niels A. Lassen Award (Danish: "Niels A. Lassen Prisen"). The Danish medical doctor, brain researcher and "science entertainer" Peter Lund Madsen was a student of Niels A. Lassen, and Peter Lund Madsen received the Niels A. Lassen Award in 2002^[2]. Niels Lassen himself received the Novo Nordisk Prize i 1968^[3].

Bibliography

• Niels A. Lassen, William A. Perl, Tracer kinetic methods in medical physiology, Raven, New York, 1979. ISBN 0-89004-114-8.

Sources

• Olaf B. Paulson, "Niels A. Lassen (1926-1997)", In Festskrift. Dansk Neurologisk Selskab 1900-2000, Jørgen Therkelsen (editor), Lægeforeningens forlag, Copenhagen, 2000.
• Lars Friberg, Albert Gjedde (September 1997). "In memoriam: Niels A. Lassen, 7 December 1926 - 30 April 1997". European Journal of Nuclear Medicine 24 (9): 1083–1084. doi:10.1007/BF01254237. 
• Olaf B. Paulson (1997). "Niels A. Lassen, M.D., Ph.D.: 1926–1997". Journal of Cerebral Blood Flow & Metabolism 17: 1005–1006. doi:10.1097/00004647-199710000-00001. 

Notes

1. ^ Niels A. Lassen, David H. Ingvar, Erik Skinhøj (October 1978). "Brain Function and Blood Flow". Scientific American 239 (4): 50–59. 
2. ^ "Niels A. Lassen Prisen 2002". Ugeskrift for Læger 165 (4): 354. 2003. http://www.ugeskriftet.dk/LF/UFL/2003/04/pdf/VP41330.pdf. 
3. ^ Novo Nordisk Foundation, The Novo Nordisk Prize.

Persondata
Name	Lassen, Niels Alexander
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	December 7, 1926
Place of birth
Date of death	April 30, 1997
Place of death