Raymond Vahan Damadian

Raymond Vahan Damadian was born on March 16, 1936 in Queens, New York City, NY. His dad, Vahan Krikor Damadian, was a photoengraver. Damadian played the violin when he was a child, and was also very strong in math and science when he was in school. He got his medicine degree at Albert Einstein Collgege of Medicine. Damadian was an American doctor ans inventor of the first Magnetic Resonance Scanning Machine. He joined the Air Force for a short time to serve his country, but once he left he taught in SUNY Downstate Medical Center.

Raymond Vahan Damadian

Damadian and another doctor measured potassium in bacteria. They put it in a nuclear magnetic resonance machine, and got a signal. Damadian was stunned by how with the nuclear magnetic resonance machine, it took them minutes to get a signal while if he had done it in his lab, it would have taken him days. That was when his idea of the MRI bloomed. He thought that if they could do what they just did on a test tube on a human, then maybe they could get a full body scan to hunt down cancer. After a few tries, Damadian proved this right, only now the MRI has grown to do so much more than track down cancer. The MRI has made it possible for surgeons and other doctors to see inside the human body and know what is wrong. So, let's thank Raymond Vahan Damadian for the MRI, because without it, where would we be today?

Inventor of the MRI

5 Facts About Raymond Vahan Damadian1] The 2003 Nobel Prize was denied to Damadian.2] He conducted an experitment to see the difference between cancerous cells and healthy cells to try to find the cure, but it failed.3] He founded his own company, called Fonar, to manufacture his own machines4] He studied the violin at Julliard during the weekends when he was just a kid!5] Fonar is a $30 million companhy.

Fun Facts:

'What would happen if you have an antenna wrapped around the human body, where you can look an atom, and another atom, and then another atom, and you could go from one tissue to the next, and without ever invading the body, get the chemistry of each organ?'~ Raymond Vahan Damadian

5 Facts About the MRI1] The very first successful scan was on July 3rd, 19772] The MRI was originally thought to just be used to find the cure for cancer.3] The first tested MRI was called Indomitable.4] MRIs can pick up tumors, bone fractures, and even electrical brain activity5] MRIs can be taken standing up, stiing down, or lying on your back.