STONY BROOK, October 6, 2003—Paul C. Lauterbur, Ph.D., whose research conducted at Stony Brook University led to the development of Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) and revolutionized healthcare in the latter portion of the 20th century, was awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine in Stockholm, Sweden today.
Dr. Lauterbur was a Professor of Chemistry and also a Professor of Radiology in the School of Medicine at Stony Brook when he conducted the research that led to his landmark discovery in the 1970s and early 1980s. His original MRI technology remains on display at the University’s Chemistry Building.
The award was hailed by Stony Brook President Shirley Strum Kenny, who said: “Stony Brook is rightfully known as the birthplace of the MRI. It is because of Dr. Lauterbur’s research done here that millions of lives have been improved due to this breakthrough in healthcare technology.”
The research began in 1971 when Dr. Lauterbur watched as colleagues used Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) to examine tissue cut from a cancerous tumor. “They were getting some NMR signals from the tumor tissues that were different from those in other tissues,” he said in a 1996 interview during a campus ceremony celebrating the technology. “But, I thought, it probably was not very important unless you could do it without cutting somebody.”
Two years later, in 1973, the British scientific journal Nature published an article by Dr. Lauterbur describing an NMR technique for taking three-dimensional pictures of body organs and vessels, without the use of ionized radiation or toxic dyes. It was this technique that was used as the basis for the manufacture of MRI equipment. The MRI went on to become a critical non-invasive tool in medical diagnosis.
Besides transforming diagnostics, Dr. Lauterbur’s discovery helped establish Stony Brook’s reputation as a leading research institution that is home to many important discoveries, including the cause of Lyme disease, the discovery of ReoPro® (the most commonly used drug to reduce mortality in cardiac patients), the discovery of the link between smoking and emphysema, and the development of the virtual colonoscopy.
"On behalf of the entire State University of New York community, I congratulate Paul Lauterbur on winning the Nobel Prize," said SUNY Chancellor Robert L. King. "Thanks to Dr. Lauterbur's genius, physicians all over the world have had an accurate and painless diagnostic tool to assess patient illness. He is directly responsible for the improvement of the quality of life all of us enjoy. We are very proud Dr. Lauterbur conducted his ground-breaking work at the State University of New York."
