In 1969 Raymond Damadian first proposed the idea of using nuclear magnetic resonance technology to scan the human body externally for early signs of malignancy. He went on to design and build the first MR scanner that produced the first human image in 1977. The following year he founded FONAR Corporation, which produced the world's first commercial MRI machine in 1980. MRI has become a vital tool for diagnosing brain tumors and other diseases of the central nervous system, and for spotting soft-tissue injuries in muscles and ligaments.
Dr. Damadian attended Juilliard School of Music (violin) from 1944 to 1952 and was a Ford Foundation Scholar at the University of Wisconsin, from which he graduated in 1956. He received his M.D. from Albert Einstein College of Medicine, New York in 1960.
Dr. Damadian is a recipient of the National Medal of Technology and the Lemelson-MIT Lifetime Achievement Award, to name two in a long list of awards, and was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 1989. He is a member of the Biophysical Society, American Association for the Advancement of Science, International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine, and the Society for Medical Innovation and Technology.
Information as of April 2004