Andrew A Maudsley1
1Radiology, University of Miami, School of Medicine, Miami, FL, United States
Synopsis
Richard
R. Ernst received the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1991 for “contributions to
the development of the methodology of high resolution nuclear magnetic
resonance (NMR) spectroscopy”. He passed away on June 4th 2021. This
presentation will review his scientific contributions with a focus on his
impact on the field of magnetic resonance imaging.
Summary
Richard R. Ernst received the Nobel Prize for
Chemistry in 1991 for his contributions to the development of the methodology
of high resolution nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy. He was born
in Winterthur, Switzerland, and was a researcher and faculty member at the
Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule, ETH, in Zurich. He passed away on June 4th,
2021. Of his many notable achievements, he is known for his development of
Fourier transform NMR spectroscopy, which marked the start of the digital age
for NMR. This invention, published in 1966 (1), led to a dramatic improvement
in sensitivity for NMR spectroscopy over the swept-frequency methods that were
in use at that time, as well as to the introduction of the Ernst angle, a term
that remains in common use throughout NMR and MRI. His subsequent development
of multidimensional NMR methods (2), which included the use of phase encoding
for spatial mapping of spin resonances, led to dramatic improvements in
analytic capabilities and was a seminal contribution that eventually led to the
development of MRI. Richard Ernst is also known for his dedication to his research
laboratory and he is fondly remembered by his many students.Acknowledgements
No acknowledgement found.References
1. Ernst
RR and Anderson WA. Application of Fourier transform spectroscopy to magnetic
resonance". Review of Scientific Instruments. 37: 93 (1966).
2. Aue
WP, Bartholdi E, and Ernst RR. Two-dimensional spectroscopy. Application to
nuclear magnetic resonance. J. Chem. Phys. 64, 2229 (1976).