Definition of Mansfield, Peter

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Mansfield, Peter: British scientist (1933-) who shared the 2003 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine with the American scientist Paul C. Lauterbur for discoveries concerning "magnetic resonance imaging." (Magnetic resonance imaging is better known perhaps as MRI). Mansfield did his research principally at the University of Nottingham.

Sir Peter Mansfield developed the utilization of gradients in the magnetic field. He showed how the signals could be mathematically analyzed, which made it possible to develop a useful imaging technique. Mansfield also showed how extremely fast imaging could be achievable. This became technically possible within medicine a decade later.

Mansfield utilized gradients in the magnetic field in order to more precisely show differences in the resonance. He showed how the detected signals rapidly and effectively could be analyzed and transformed to an image. This was an essential step in order to obtain a practical method. Mansfield also showed how extremely rapid imaging could be achieved by very fast gradient variations (so called echo-planar scanning). This technique became useful in clinical practice a decade later.