Key Advances and Special Awards in Radiology

1896 - Henri Becquerel discovers radioactivity and nuclear medicine is born.

1901 – W.C. Roentgen receives the Nobel in Physics for the discovery of x-rays.

1905 - The first English book on Chest Radiography is published.

1910 - Köhler publishes the first edition of his classic book on normal variants, providing the needed anatomical knowledge required and the identification of normal variants so physicians could distinguish calcified lymph glands, gallstones, kidney and bladder stones and other shadows on an abdominal radiograph.

1913 –Coolidge hot cathode tube is introduced, simplifying the work of technicians and allowing more uniform results.

1914 – M. von Laue receives the Nobel in Physics for x-ray diffraction from crystals.

1915 – W.H. Bragg and W. L. Bragg receives the Nobel in Physics for crystal structure derived from x-ray diffraction.

1917 – C.G. Barkla receives the Nobel in Physics for characteristic radiation of elements.

1918 – Eastman introduces film. Until then, radiographs were made onto glass photographic plates.

1920 - Society of Radiographers forms.

1924 – K.M.G. Siegbahn receives the Nobel in Physics for x-ray spectroscopy.

1927 – A. H. Compton receives the Nobel in Physics for scattering of x-rays by electrons.

1930s –From this point, doctors are appointed with specific interests in diagnosis or therapy.

1931 - Ernerst 0. Lawrence developes the cyclotron and paves the way for major experiments later conducted at the Radium Institute in Paris.

1936 – P. Debye receives the Nobel in Chemistry for diffraction of x-rays and electrons in gases.

1937 -The first clinical use of "artificial radioactivity" is carried out for the treatment of a patient with leukemia at the University of California at Berkeley.

1946 -A landmark nuclear medicine advance. A thyroid cancer patient's treatment with radioactive iodine causes the complete disappearance of the spread of the patient's cancer. This is considered by some as the true beginning of nuclear medicine. Wide-spread clinical use of nuclear medicine does not start until the early 1950s.

1950s - Development of the image intensifier and X-ray television.

1955 - First use of a radioactive tracer in the lungs with the introduction of inhaled xenon-133 and external counting.

1956 - The medical use of Ultrasound starts in Glasgow. Professor Ian Donald M.D. and his colleagues, working at the University of Glasgow’s Department of Midwifery are the first to apply ultrasound as a diagnostic modality in the fields of obstetrics and gynaecology.

1962 - M. Perutz and J. Kendrew receive the Nobel in Chemistry for the structure of hemoglobin. J. Watson, M. Wilkins, and F. Crick receive the Nobel in Medicine for the structure of DNA.

1967 - The first clinical use of MRI takes place in Nottingham University Hospital.

1972 - CT is invented by British engineer Godfrey Hounsfield of EMI Laboratories in England.

1970s - Visualization of most organs of the body with nuclear medicine, including liver and spleen scanning, brain tumor localization, and studies of the gastrointestinal track.

1979 – A. McLeod Comack and G. Newbold Hounsfield receive the Nobel in Medicine for computed axial tomography.

1980s - Begin the use of radiopharmaceuticals for such critical diagnoses as heart disease and the development of cutting-edge nuclear medicine cameras and computers. The use of computers, laser printers and software transforms Nuclear Medicine.

1981 – K. M. Siegbahn receives the Nobel in Physics for high resolution electron spectroscopy.

1985 – H. Hauptman and J. Karle receive the Nobel in Chemistry for direct methods to determine x-ray structures.

1988 – J. Deisenhofer, R. Huber, and H. Michel receive the Nobel in Chemistry for the structures of proteins that are crucial to photosynthesis.