Sir Peter Mansfield. 9 October 1933—8 February 2017

Abstract

Peter Mansfield's rise from humble origins to founding father of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is an inspirational and remarkable story. His first scientific contributions were in the field of solid state nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), and it was whilst trying to develop an NMR version of X-ray crystallography that he developed the underpinning methodology for MRI. At that time (the early 1970s) NMR was an analytical tool, ubiquitous in chemistry departments. For most of those working in the field, there was no hint that it could be developed into a diagnostic imaging technique that would reveal internal anatomy in unprecedented detail. Yet that was what happened in the space of just a few years. The first MRI scans were slow, and Peter was driven to speed them up, making physiological and later functional brain imaging studies possible. The technical challenges were many, and eschewed by healthcare equipment providers, but Peter persisted and his brainchild, echo-planar imaging, came to dominate the high speed MRI field. Peter was a gifted physicist and archetypal inventor who devoted his life to the development of a technique that has saved millions of lives. In 2003, he shared the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine, in recognition of his achievement.