The Man behind the CAT Scan – Sir Godfrey Newbold Hounsfield

Birth of the CAT scan Technology Idea

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X-Ray scanner with the team from L/R Godfrey Hounsfield (The inventor of the scanner), Tony Williams (Mechanical Designer), Peter Langstone (Electronics expert), Steve Bates (Computer Programmer), Chris Lemay (Mathematician who worked out the technique for the computer). April 1975 75-1905-008 (Photo by WATFORD/Mirrorpix/Mirrorpix via Getty Images)

During his research days, Sir Godfrey Newbold Hounsfield spent quite some time in the EMI Central Research Laboratories. His first project here started off on a high note but had to be abandoned midway since it was not a very commercially viable idea.

However, instead of being assigned to another project as a replacement, he was indeed asked to think of innovative research ideas. For this purpose, he kept himself busy with ideas of pattern recognition and how large its applications can be.

During this pursuit, in 1967, the idea of the CAT scan technology and computed tomography came to his mind. Of course, there was a long process between the birth of the idea and the actual implementation, but this is how Hounsfield came up with this thought.

His idea that the human brain could be scanned using multiple X-ray beams, creating high-resolution graphics eventually got him the Nobel Prize. This paved the way for the diagnosis of brain diseases and also led to the introduction of full-body X-ray scans.

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