University Times

Paul C. Lauterbur, who earned his Ph.D. in chemistry from Pitt in 1962, has been awarded this year’s Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine jointly with Sir Peter Mansfield of the University of Nottingham in England. Their work on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in the 1970s led to its modern use as a noninvasive, painless tool for medical diagnoses.

Lauterbur is professor of chemistry, biophysics and computational biology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. “There is no form of scientific recognition that could more appropriately celebrate his contributions to science and society,” said N.

John Cooper, dean of Pitt’s School of Arts and Sciences. “Dr. Lauterbur’s invention of MRI is a wonderful story of how someone with vision can take what seemed at the time to e arcane spectroscopy and translate it into a technology that has transformed the practice of medicine.”