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A physicist at The University of Nottingham has received one of the nation’s highest honours for his work on Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) technology.
Professor Peter Morris has been awarded a CBE for services to science and medicine in the Queen’s New Year Honours List 2016.
Professor Morris, of the University’s School of Physics and Astronomy, was part of the team that developed MRI in the 1970s – and has continued to work in the field ever since.
The development of the MRI scanner transformed diagnostic medicine and saves the lives of thousands of people every year. More than 25,000 scanners are in use in hospitals around the world.
Professor Sir David Greenaway, Vice-Chancellor, said: “Professor Morris has been associated with the development of MRI and its applications throughout his career. His contributions have been immense.
"In his current role as Director of the Sir Peter Mansfield Centre, he leads an outstanding team. This public recognition of Peter's contributions is richly deserved, and a matter of real pride for our University."
Professor Morris joined Sir Peter Mansfield’s laboratory as a PhD student in the early 1970s, having just completed his first degree in theoretical physics at Cambridge University.
In 1977 he helped to construct the world’s first whole body line-scanning MRI system which is now in the London Science Museum. Sir Peter Mansfield was recognised for this work with a Nobel Prize in 2003.
Today, Professor Morris heads up a research centre that continues to do ground-breaking work to develop MRI – the Sir Peter Mansfield Magnetic Resonance Imaging Centre, on University Park.
MRI continues to re-invent itself and every few years Professor Morris and his team find new things that it can do, and new ways that patients can be helped with the technology.
Last year the Government announced an investment of £7.7m in MRI scanning equipment at the University. With another £1.67m from the University for new buildings and facilities, this huge cash injection – for the birthplace of MRI – will secure Nottingham’s position in the vanguard of MRI research internationally for the next decade.
The Queen’s New Year Honours recognise individuals who have made an outstanding contribution in their chosen field. The CBE - Commander of the Order of the British Empire - will be conferred on Professor Morris by a member of the royal family at an official ceremony at Buckingham Palace in 2016.
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Notes to editors: The University of Nottingham has 43,000 students and is ‘the nearest Britain has to a truly global university, with a “distinct” approach to internationalisation, which rests on those full-scale campuses in China and Malaysia, as well as a large presence in its home city.’ (Times Good University Guide 2016). It is also one of the most popular universities in the UK among graduate employers and the winner of ‘Research Project of the Year’ at the Times Higher Education Awards 2014. It is ranked in the world’s top 75 by the QS World University Rankings 2015/16, and 8th in the UK by research power according to the Research Excellence Framework 2014. It has been voted the world’s greenest campus for three years running, according to Greenmetrics Ranking of World Universities.
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