Lauterbur, Paul C.
A native of Sidney, Ohio, Paul C. Lauterbur was born on the 6 May 1929. He received the B.S. degree in chemistry from Case Institute of Technology in 1951. Between 1951 and 1953, he worked as a Research Associate at the Mellon Institute where he was involved in the studies of organosilicon chemistry, vulcanizing systems and reinforcing fillers of silicone elastomers. He served in the Army Chemical Center Laboratories between 1953 and 1955 where he worked on the biological testing of chemical warfare agents and studies on aerosols. While he was at the Army Chemical Center, he also set up the nuclear magnetic resonance laboratory and began research on NMR spectroscopy. After his military service, life returned to the Mellon Institute and continued his graduate education, receiving the Ph.D. degree in chemistry from the University of Pittsburgh in 1962. From 1963 to 1984, he was on the faculty of the State University of New York at Stony Brook where he served as a Professor in the Departments of Chemistry and Radiology. During this period, Lauterbur worked on NMR spectroscopy and its applications to the studies of the structures of molecules, solutions and solids. He also extended his NMR studies to applications in biochemistry and biophysics when he discovered nuclear magnetic resonance imaging. In 1984, he was named as University Professor at SUNY Stony Brook until his departure in 1985. Currently, he is a professor at the College of Medicine and in the Department of Chemistry of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and the Director of Magnetic Resonance Imaging Research at the same institution. He also holds the position of Adjunct University Professor at SUNY Stony Brook.
Lauterbur has published more than 110 scientific articles in various aspects of NMR and its applications. His work at SUNY Stony Brook has laid the foundations for the entire field of nuclear magnetic resonance imaging which is also known as nuclear magnetic resonance zeugmatography. From his work came a new medical diagnostic instrument and his discovery provided a new field of endeavor for physicists, engineers and clinicians. The discovery of NMR imaging has impacted the medical instrumentation industry positively by opening new horizons.
Recognition of Lauterbur's outstanding achievements includes an honorary Ph.D. from the University of Liege, Belgium and numerous awards including the Gold Medal of the Society of Magnetic Resonance in Medicine, the Michelson-Morley Award, American Physical Society Prize in Biological Physics and Harvey Prize in Science and Technology. He was awarded the IEEE Medal of Honor in 1987, 'For the discovery of nuclear magnetic resonance imaging.' (Editor's Note: He won the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 2003.) (Editor's Note 2: Lauterbur passed away on 27 March 2007 at his home in Urbana, Il. He was 77 years of age
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