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Raymond Damadian

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Doctor

The Resume

    (March 16, 1936-August 6, 2022)
    Born in New York City, New York
    Pioneer in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)
    Granted the first MRI patent (1974)
    Founded the company Fonar to manufacture MRI scanners (1978)

Why he might be annoying:

    His patent application for using nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) to scan the body to detect cancer omitted the minor details of how the scan could be performed and how diagnostic images would be produced.
    His initial proposal of measuring differences in the relaxation times of potassium atoms proved too variable to be practical.
    His own company abandoned his technique in favor of the method developed by Paul Lauterbur and Peter Mansfield.
    When the 2003 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded to Lauterbur and Mansfield, a group called 'The Friends of Raymond Damadian' took out ads in leading newspapers to protest his omission.
    The ads were an astroturf campaign, as 'The Friends of Raymond Damadian' was funded by Damadian's company Fonar.
    A New York Times editorial about his behavior noted, 'There is no Nobel Prize for whining.'
    He was a young-earth creationist.

Why he might not be annoying:

    He studied violin at Juilliard for eight years.
    One of his papers in 'Science' discussing the potential medical uses of NMR inspired Lauterbur's research.
    He worked with pacemaker pioneer Wilson Greatbatch to develop an MRI-compatible pacemaker.
    He successfully sued General Electric for $129 million for patent infringement.
    Several prominent scientists said he should have received a share of the 2003 Nobel Prize, especially since rules for the Prize allow for up to three winners.
    He was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame (1989), which has his original full-body MRI scanner on display (on loan from the Smithsonian).

Credit: C. Fishel


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Year In Review:

    In 2023, Out of 3 Votes: 0% Annoying
    In 2022, Out of 102 Votes: 54.90% Annoying