European Magnetic Resonance Award
25th Anniversary Award Presentation

Bolinder Palace - Grand Hôtel
Stockholm, 3 May 2010

Excerpts from the presentation speech by Peter A. Rinck

Honored Laureates, Dear Friends,

To honor those scientists who have made a major contribution to magnetic resonance imaging in medicine on a European scale the EMRF presents the European Magnetic Resonance Award.

The leitmotif of this Award is clearly identified by the Code of Statutes:

“To be eligible for the Award, the prospective recipient should have written and published a scientific paper or scientific papers in basic or medical aspects of nuclear magnetic resonance imaging, its medical or biological applications, or related sciences, or contributed to the benefit of mankind within these disciplines.”

Since 1990, the nomination of the laureates is performed by a Nominating Committee which in 2010 consisted of 70 members from 15 European countries. I won’t bore you with a list of names.

The Award itself is a crystal owl, representing Athena, the goddess of crafts and skilled peacetime pursuits. She personifies wisdom and righteousness. Thus, the award symbolizes scientific perseverance and knowledge turned into cutting edge results with a direct impact on patient care. These virtues and successes should be lauded, in any field – and in our field.

When somebody creates an award it is also meant as an incentive, a motivation for young scientists to pursue new avenues of research and teaching. In the field of magnetic resonance we have already the third generation of scientists and users since the invention of MR imaging. We want them to go on.

In these fast moving and rapidly changing times a quarter of a century is quite a period for a prize still to exist. We also want this Award to live on in the future.

The first Award went to Paul C. Lauterbur who is the only non-European who ever received it.

Award ceremony 1986: Paul C. Lauterbur to the right; Thomas Budinger to the left.

It was an evening in March, in Monte Carlo – of all academic places – and he seemed to be quite taken with the crystal bird. It’s an enigmatic owl which doesn’t have eyes although you see two eyes.

In 1987, John Mallard from Aberdeen followed, Peter Mansfield in 1988, Graeme M. Bydder one year later. Axel Haase and Jens Frahm shared the Award in 1990.

Since 1991 the Award has been divided into a Basic Sciences Award and a Medical Sciences Award.

In the following years, it went to Werner Kaiser and Ian R. Young (1991), Roberto Passariello and Jürgen Hennig (1992), Donald Longmore and Raimo Sepponen (1993), Anders Hemmigsson and Denis Le Bihan (1994).

The prize was not awarded in 1995, since 1996 it is a bi-annual award.

Hanns-Joachim Weinmann and Thomas Vogl were the recipients in 1996.

Award ceremony 1996: Hanns Joachim Weinmann receives the Award from Peter A. Rinck.

At the Award Ceremony in Santa Margherita Ligure he suddenly closed his eyes, most likely because he was afraid that the crystal bird would not be able to fly … but fall and break. Fortunately it didn’t.

The magnetic resonance community lost one of its pioneers in contrast agent research when Hanns Weinmann died in early December 2009 after a long illness. We lost a friend, too.

In 1998, the European Magnetic Resonance Award was presented to Gustav K. von Schulthess and Patrick J. Cozzone (1998), Guy Marchal and Chrit Moonen (2000), Gerhard Laub and Peter Luyten (2002), Silvio Aime and Klaas P. Prüssmann (2004), Christiane Kuhl and Jacques Bittoun (2006), and Klaes Golman and Luis Martí-Bonmatí (2008).

Let’s proceed to this year’s Award.

Nominated with a majority of votes and selected were John R. Griffiths from Cambridge for Basic Sciences and Stefan Neubauer from Oxford for Medical Sciences.

The European Magnetic Resonance Award 2010 for Basic Sciences is presented to John R. Griffiths in recognition of his outstanding contributions to the applications of magnetic resonance spectroscopy in oncology.

CV - John R. Griffiths

[Prof. Robert N. Muller:] Dr. Griffiths, it is my privilege to convey to you our warmest congratulations. I now ask you to step forward to receive your Award.

The European Magnetic Resonance Award 2010 for Medical Sciences is presented to Stefan Neubauer in recognition of his outstanding contributions to anatomical and functional cardiovascular magnetic resonance imaging and spectroscopy.

CV - Stefan Neubauer

Dr. Neubauer, it is my privilege to convey to you our warmest congratulations. I now ask you to step forward to receive your Award.

And now for something completely different. At this point, we usually have two brilliant lectures by the laureates. However, these scientific reviews have been replaced by a more social exchange tonight to celebrate this anniversary.

First we’ll have an aperitif to drink a toast to Stefan Neubauer and John Griffiths, then we’ll have a small banquet which is a revival of the first Noble Prize Dinner of 1901 – the wines are slightly adapted to contemporary taste. After the formal awards ceremony, which was held at the Academy of Music on the evening of Tuesday, 10 December 1901, the illustrious party of the award recipients was taken by horse and carriage to the Grand Hôtel for the great banquet. The detailed menu you will find on your table.

I just want to explain some of the animals which will be served. It’s not a vegetarian dinner. One of them is brill, a flat fish (not turbot; it’s similar, but better in taste, one step below sole) – Glattbutt – barbue – rémol – slätvar. Another name you’ll find in the menu is hazel grouse – Haselhuhn – gélinotte – el grèvol – järpe.

But first, let’s have a glass of champagne.

EMRF

The European Forum
for Magnetic Resonance Research and Application

Grand Hôtel and Bolinder Palace

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