MRI Researcher Says He Deserved Nobel

NEW YORK -- Raymond Damadian, president and founder of Fonar Corp., a Melville, N.Y.-based maker of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanners, ran ads in newspapers including The New York Times today saying he should have been included in this year's Nobel Prize in medicine.

American Paul C. Lauterbur and Briton Sir Peter Mansfield won the prize Monday for their discoveries leading to the development of the modern MRI.

But Demadian said "MRI wouldn't exist" without his work, in an Associated Press (AP) article today.

Damadian and Lauterbur jointly won the National Medal of Technology in 1988 for development of MRI. The Fonar ads say Damadian made the key discovery on which MRI is based, while Lauterbur and Mansfield made technological improvements.

The ad includes a cutout coupon that asks members of the committee to have the two named winners share the prize with Damadian.

Damadian said that while he doesn't think the Nobel committee will change its mind, it should be held more accountable as the "ultimate arbiter of scientific history," the AP reported.

The Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden, which gives the awards, told the AP it will stand by its choice and would not say whether Damadian had been nominated, as the names of nominees are kept secret for 50 years.

For more information, visit: www.fonar.com