Nobel Laureate and Pitt Alumnus Paul C. Lauterbur Dies at 77

PITTSBURGH-University of Pittsburgh alumnus Paul C. Lauterbur, who shared the 2003 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his part in developing magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), died today. He was 77. Most recently a professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Lauterbur earned his Ph.D. degree in chemistry at Pitt in 1962. Pitt's chemistry department, in the School of Arts and Sciences, named Lauterbur among the inaugural group of distinguished alumni in 2000 at the department's 125th anniversary celebration. Lauterbur won the Nobel Prize with Sir Peter Mansfield of the University of Nottingham in England for research that led to the development of MRI, a noninvasive technique that uses a magnet to generate images of the inside of an object. MRI is largely used in medicine. Lauterbur delivered the keynote speech at Pitt's 2004 commencement ceremony where Chancellor Mark A. Nordenberg conferred upon him the Honorary Doctor of Science degree. In his commencement address, Lauterbur discussed fleshing out his idea of observing organs through noninvasive images in a local diner and that techniques he learned in a graduate course at Pitt convinced him that the idea was possible. For a full text of Lauterbur's 2004 commencement address at Pitt, visit the Pitt Chronicle Web site at www.umc.pitt.edu/media/pcc040503/lauterbur_speech.html. ###