The Radiological Society of North America dedicates the RSNA Meeting Program of the 90th Scientific Assembly and Annual Meeting to Godfrey N. Hounsfield, DSc, the father of computed tomography. Dr Hounsfield died in August 2004 at the age of 84.

Godfrey N. Hounsfield, DSc

"On a solitary country walk Sir Godfrey Hounsfield had an idea that forever changed radiologic diagnosis by recognizing that there was content in an image that had been unavailable for diagnosis from film-based displays, and that it might be extracted using a computer," said RSNA President Brian C. Lentle, MD. "Today we take sectional imaging and computed image reconstruction and analysis for granted. That change owes a great deal to him, as well as his forerunners, including William Oldendorf and David Kuhl, and his collaborators, notably the late Allan Cormack. We continue to quote 'Hounsfield numbers' but they are only a symptom of the sea change in our specialty wrought by these investigators, who were not all clinicians."

Dr Hounsfield never attended a university and was largely self-taught. World War II allowed him to pursue his interest in radio as a Royal Air Force (RAF) volunteer reservist. High RAF test scores sent him to the Cranwell Radar School. Following the war, Air Vice-Marshal J.R. Cassidy helped Dr Hounsfield obtain a grant to attend Faraday House Electrical Engineering College in London.

In 1951, he joined EMI in Middlesex, England, where he worked with the research staff on radar and guided weapons. While at EMI, he led the design team that built Britain's first all-transistor computer, the EMIDEC 1100. After completing the computer, Dr Hounsfield began development of the computerized axial tomography scanner. Near the end of his EMI tenure, Hounsfield expanded his work in diagnostic imaging to include magnetic resonance.

During the 1970s, Dr Hounsfield received 35 honors and awards for his work, including the 1979 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine. He was elected to fellowship in the Royal Society and knighted in 1981. He also received the MacRobert award of the Council of Engineering Institutions. RSNA recognized Dr Hounsfield's many achievements with an RSNA Gold Medal in 1980.

"As a bachelor, I have been able to devote a great deal of time to my general interest in science which more recently has included physics and biology," said Dr Hounsfield in his autobiography for the Nobel Prize. "A great deal of my adult life has centered on my work, and only recently did I bother to establish a permanent residence. Apart from my work, my greatest pleasures have been mainly out-of-doors, and although I no longer ski I greatly enjoy walking in the mountains and leading country rambles. I am fond of music, whether light or classical, and play the piano in a self-taught way. In company I enjoy lively way-out discussions."

Dr Hounsfield's interest in how things work developed during his boyhood on a farm near Newark, England. The electrical and mechanical machinery used to work the farm intrigued him. Soon he was experimenting and building his own machines, including an electrical recorder.

His insatiable curiosity changed the course of medical imaging forever. For this invaluable contribution, RSNA is proud to dedicate the 2004 RSNA Meeting Program in memory of Sir Godfrey N. Hounsfield, DSc.