Erwin Louis Hahn (June 9, 1921 – September 20, 2016) was an American

physicist A physicist is a scientist who specializes in the field of physics, which encompasses the interactions of matter and energy at all length and time scales in the physical universe. Physicists generally are interested in the root or ultimate cau ...

, best known for his work on nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR).Filler, AG: The history, development, and impact of computed imaging in neurological diagnosis and neurosurgery: CT, MRI, DTI
Nature Precedings
. In 1950 he discovered the spin echo.

Education

He grew up in Sewickley, Pennsylvania. He received his B.S. in Physics from Juniata College and his M.S. and

Doctor of Philosophy A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of Postgraduate education, graduate study and original resear ...

from the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign. He served as an enlisted sailor in the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the naval warfare, maritime military branch, service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest Displacement (ship), displacement, at 4.5 millio ...

and was an instructor on radar and sonar.

Career and research

He was professor of physics, from 1955 to 1991, and subsequently,

Professor Emeritus ''Emeritus/Emerita'' () is an honorary title granted to someone who retirement, retires from a position of distinction, most commonly an academic faculty position, but is allowed to continue using the previous title, as in "professor emeritus". ...

at the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...

. Hahn was elected a Fellow of the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (The Academy) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and other ...

in 1971. In 1993 he was awarded the Comstock Prize in Physics from the

National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the ...

. In 2013, Sir Peter Mansfield said in his autobiography that Hahn was "the person who really missed out" the

Nobel Prize The Nobel Prizes ( ; ; ) are awards administered by the Nobel Foundation and granted in accordance with the principle of "for the greatest benefit to humankind". The prizes were first awarded in 1901, marking the fifth anniversary of Alfred N ...

for his contribution to the principles of spin echoes. He also received the 2016 Gold Medal from the International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine (ISMRM). The award, ISMRM's highest honor, was given to Hahn for his creation of pulsed magnetic resonance and processes of signal refocusing which are essential to modern day MRI. He died at the age of 95 in 2016.

References

External links

Oral History interview transcript with Erwin L. Hahn on 21 August 1986, American Institute of Physics, Niels Bohr Library and Archives

Alexander Pines and Dmitry Budker, "Erwin L. Hahn", Biographical Memoirs of the National Academy of Sciences (2019)

The Transformative Genius of Erwin Hahn - Interview published 8 May 2016, Magnetic Resonance in Medicine Highlights.
*
Download the entire Highlights print supplement featuring this story at: http://www.ismrm.org/MRM/mrm_highlights_magazine.pdf
1921 births 2016 deaths Juniata College alumni American nuclear physicists Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Foreign members of the Royal Society Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences Members of the French Academy of Sciences Oliver E. Buckley Condensed Matter Prize winners People from Sharon, Pennsylvania Stanford University faculty University of California, Berkeley College of Letters and Science faculty University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign alumni Wolf Prize in Physics laureates United States Navy sailors {{US-physicist-stub

Education

Career and research

See also

References

External links