Mansfield, Sir Peter (1933-2017), a British physicist, won a share of the 2003 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine for his contributions to the development of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). MRI is a technique used in medicine for producing images of tissues inside the body. Physicians use these images to diagnose certain diseases, disorders, and injuries. Mansfield shared the prize with the American chemist Paul C. Lauterbur.
In an MRI examination, a scanner applies a variable magnetic field to the patient’s body. The magnetic field causes nuclei in certain atoms inside the body to line up. Radio waves are then directed at the nuclei. At just the right combination of magnetic field strength and radio frequency, the nuclei absorb energy from the radio waves and re-emit it as detectable radio signals. The strength and length of these signals depend on various properties of the tissue.
Mansfield showed that the MRI signals could be analyzed mathematically to develop an image of the internal structures in the body. In the 1970’s, he developed techniques to manipulate the applied magnetic fields, and he designed algorithms (mathematical processes) to interpret the resulting radio signals. These techniques allowed scientists to produce images from the patterns of signals.
Mansfield showed how to achieve faster scan times, which would allow for rapid image production. These advancements did not become technically possible until at least a decade later. Sophisticated computer programs can now produce images in a fraction of a second. Mansfield’s discoveries made MRI a practical method for studying the living organs at work inside the body. Using MRI, scientists can view such images as the beating of the heart inside the body and changes in blood flow to regions of the brain.
Peter Mansfield was born in London on Oct. 9, 1933. He studied physics at the University of London, graduating in 1959 and receiving a Ph.D. there in 1962. From 1962 to 1964, he was a research associate at the University of Illinois in Urbana. In 1964, he joined the department of physics and astronomy at the University of Nottingham in the United Kingdom, becoming a professor in 1979. He was knighted in 1993. Mansfield died on Feb. 8, 2017.
See also Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) .
