Allan McLeod Cormack

Last updated
Allan MacLeod Cormack
BornFebruary 23, 1924
Johannesburg, South Africa
DiedMay 7, 1998(1998-05-07) (aged 74)
Winchester, Massachusetts, United States
Alma mater University of Cape Town
St John’s College, Cambridge
Known for Computed tomography
Awards Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (1979)
National Medal of Science (1990)
Scientific career
Fields Physicist

Allan MacLeod Cormack (February 23, 1924 – May 7, 1998) was a South African American physicist who won the 1979 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (along with Godfrey Hounsfield) for his work on X-ray computed tomography (CT). [1]

Physicist scientist who does research in physics

A physicist is a scientist who specializes in the field of physics, which encompasses the interactions of matter and energy at all length and time scales in the physical universe. Physicists generally are interested in the root or ultimate causes of phenomena, and usually frame their understanding in mathematical terms. Physicists work across a wide range of research fields, spanning all length scales: from sub-atomic and particle physics, through biological physics, to cosmological length scales encompassing the universe as a whole. The field generally includes two types of physicists: experimental physicists who specialize in the observation of physical phenomena and the analysis of experiments, and theoretical physicists who specialize in mathematical modeling of physical systems to rationalize, explain and predict natural phenomena. Physicists can apply their knowledge towards solving practical problems or to developing new technologies.

Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine One of five Nobel Prizes established in 1895 by Alfred Nobel

The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, administered by the Nobel Foundation, is awarded yearly for outstanding discoveries in the fields of life sciences and medicine. It is one of five Nobel Prizes established in his will in 1895 by Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite. Nobel was interested in experimental physiology and wanted to establish a prize for scientific progress through laboratory discoveries. The Nobel Prize is presented at an annual ceremony on 10 December, the anniversary of Nobel's death, along with a diploma and a certificate for the monetary award. The front side of the medal displays the same profile of Alfred Nobel depicted on the medals for Physics, Chemistry, and Literature. The reverse side is unique to this medal. The most recent Nobel prize was announced by Karolinska Institute on 1 October 2018, and has been awarded to American James P. Allison and Japanese Tasuku Honjo – for their discovery of cancer therapy by inhibition of negative immune regulation.

Godfrey Hounsfield English electrical engineer

Sir Godfrey Newbold Hounsfield, CBE, FRS, was an English electrical engineer who shared the 1979 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine with Allan McLeod Cormack for his part in developing the diagnostic technique of X-ray computed tomography (CT).

Contents

Early life and education

Cormack was born in Johannesburg, South Africa. He attended Rondebosch Boys' High School in Cape Town, where he was active in the debating and tennis teams. [2] He received his B.Sc. in physics in 1944 from the University of Cape Town and his M.Sc. in crystallography in 1945 from the same institution. He was a doctoral student at Cambridge University from 1947–49, and while at Cambridge he met his future wife, Barbara Seavey, an American physics student.

Johannesburg Place in Gauteng, South Africa

Johannesburg is the largest city in South Africa and one of the 50 largest urban areas in the world. It is the provincial capital and largest city of Gauteng, which is the wealthiest province in South Africa. While Johannesburg is not one of South Africa's three capital cities, it is the seat of the Constitutional Court. The city is located in the mineral-rich Witwatersrand range of hills and is the centre of large-scale gold and diamond trade.

Rondebosch Boys High School South African secondary school

Rondebosch Boys' High School is a state secondary school in Rondebosch, a suburb of Cape Town, South Africa. It was founded in 1897.

Cape Town Capital city of the Western Cape province and legislative capital of South Africa

Cape Town is the oldest city in South Africa, colloquially named the Mother City. It is the legislative capital of South Africa and primate city of the Western Cape province. It forms part of the City of Cape Town metropolitan municipality.

Career

After marrying Seavey, he returned to the University of Cape Town in early 1950 to lecture. Following a sabbatical at Harvard in 1956-57, the couple agreed to move to the United States, and Cormack became a professor at Tufts University in the fall of 1957. Cormack became a naturalized citizen of the United States in 1966. Although he was mainly working on particle physics, Cormack's side interest in x-ray technology led him to develop the theoretical underpinnings of CT scanning. This work was initiated at the University of Cape Town and Groote Schuur Hospital in early 1956 and continued briefly in mid-1957 after returning from his sabbatical. His results were subsequently published in two papers in the Journal of Applied Physics in 1963 and 1964. These papers generated little interest until Hounsfield and colleagues built the first CT scanner in 1971, taking Cormack's theoretical calculations into a real application. For their independent efforts, Cormack and Hounsfield shared the 1979 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. It is notable that the two built a very similar type of device without collaboration in different parts of the world [3]. He was member of the International Academy of Science. In 1990, he was awarded the National Medal of Science. [3]

Tufts University private research university in Medford/Somerville, Massachusetts

Tufts University is a private research university in Medford and Somerville, Massachusetts. A charter member of the New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC), Tufts College was founded in 1852 by Christian universalists who worked for years to open a nonsectarian institution of higher learning. For more than a century, Tufts was a small New England liberal arts college until its transformation into a larger research university in the 1970s. The university emphasizes active citizenship and public service in all of its disciplines, and is known for its internationalism and study abroad programs. From a nationwide perspective, U.S. News & World Report categorizes Tufts as "most selective," which is the highest degree of selectivity the magazine offers. In addition, Tufts is considered one of the Hidden Ivies of the Northeastern United States.

Particle physics branch of physics

Particle physics is a branch of physics that studies the nature of the particles that constitute matter and radiation. Although the word particle can refer to various types of very small objects, particle physics usually investigates the irreducibly smallest detectable particles and the fundamental interactions necessary to explain their behaviour. By our current understanding, these elementary particles are excitations of the quantum fields that also govern their interactions. The currently dominant theory explaining these fundamental particles and fields, along with their dynamics, is called the Standard Model. Thus, modern particle physics generally investigates the Standard Model and its various possible extensions, e.g. to the newest "known" particle, the Higgs boson, or even to the oldest known force field, gravity.

Groote Schuur Hospital Hospital in Western Cape, South Africa

Groote Schuur Hospital is a large, government-funded, teaching hospital situated on the slopes of Devil's Peak in the city of Cape Town, South Africa. It was founded in 1938 and is famous for being the institution where the first human-to-human heart transplant took place, conducted by University of Cape Town-educated surgeon Christiaan Barnard on the patient Louis Washkansky.

Death

Cormack died of cancer in Winchester, Massachusetts at age 74. He was posthumously awarded the Order of Mapungubwe on the 10 December 2002 for outstanding achievements as a scientist and for co-inventing the CT scanner.

Order of Mapungubwe

The Order of Mapungubwe is South Africa's highest honour. It was instituted on 6 December 2002, and is granted by the President of South Africa, for achievements in the international area which have served South Africa's interests. The order originally had three classes, and was enlarged to four in 2004:

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History of computed tomography

The history of X-ray computed tomography goes back to at least 1917 with the mathematical theory of the Radon transform In October 1963, William H. Oldendorf received a U.S. patent for a "radiant energy apparatus for investigating selected areas of interior objects obscured by dense material". The first commercially viable CT scanner was invented by Sir Godfrey Hounsfield in 1967.

<i>Imagining the Elephant</i>

Imagining the Elephant: A Biography of Allan MacLeod Cormack is a 2008 biography of physicist and Nobel laureate Allan MacLeod Cormack written by biomedical engineer and author Christopher Kit Vaughan and published by Imperial College Press. The book won the University of Cape Town Book Award in 2010, an honour shared with Nobel laureate J.M. Coetzee who won the award in 1984 for Waiting for the Barbarians.

References

  1. ↑ "1979: Allan MacLeod Cormack (1924-1998)". St John's College, Cambridge .
  2. ↑ Allan McLeod Cormack - Biography Archived 2014-04-15 at WebCite , www.nobelprize.org, Access date: 29 March 2014
  3. ↑ "The President's National Medal of Science: Recipient Details | NSF - National Science Foundation". www.nsf.gov. Retrieved 2017-11-14.

[3] Oransky, Ivan (2004). "Sir Godfrey N Hounsfield". The Lancet. 364 (9439): 1032. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(04)17049-9.

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