Godfrey Newbold Hounsfield (1919-2004): The man who revolutionized neuroimaging

Godfrey Hounsfield, a biomedical engineer contributed enormously towards the diagnosis of neurological and other disorders by virtue of his invention of the computed axial tomography scan for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1979. Working for the Electrical and Musical Industry (EMI) Limited and in collaboration with two radiologists, James Ambrose and Louis Kreel, he introduced the use of this machine in 1971 at the Atkinson Morley's Hospital in Wimbledon. He continued to improve the quality of the devise and the human head was scanned for the first time in 1972. He continued his work on imaging of the human body was later concentrated on the next step in diagnostic radiology namely, magnetic resonance imaging.