Awards and Prizes

Pro Academia Prize

he Pro Academia Prize was established in 2012. It is bestowed upon one or several academic groups that can serve as an example in academic work and cooperation.

Their members must have worked together and succeeded in reaching their goals over a period of at least eight years and thus created "nurseries" of scientific eminence.

More information about the Prize and the Prize winners can be found on the website of the Pro Academia Prize .

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European Magnetic Resonance Award

ince 1986 EMRF conferred the European Magnetic Resonance Award upon those scientists without whom magnetic resonance imaging as a patient-friendly non-invasive diagnostic technology in medicine would not exist. Since 1991 two Awards are granted, one for advances in medical applications and one for research in basic sciences. Since 1994, the Award is biennial. Since 2013, the Award is part of the Pro Academia Prize.

The Award – as well as the Pro Academia Prize – is a crystal owl, representing Athene, the goddess of crafts and skilled peacetime pursuits. She personifies wisdom and rightousness. Thus, the award symbolizes scientific perseverance and knowledge turned into cutting edge results with a direct impact on patient care.

Recipients of the Award

   Paul C. Lauterbur (1986)
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
   John Mallard (1987)
University of Aberdeen
   Peter Mansfield (1988)
University of Nottingham
   Graeme M. Bydder (1989)
University of London
   Axel Haase and Jens Frahm (shared award, 1990)
University of Würzburg and Max-Planck-Institute, Göttingen
   Werner Kaiser and Ian Young (1991)
University of Bonn and University of London
   Roberto Passariello and Jürgen Hennig (1992)
University of Rome and University of Freiburg
   Donald Longmore and Raimo Sepponen (1993)
Royal Brompton Hospital, London, and University of Helsinki
   Anders Hemmingsson and Denis Le Bihan (1994)
University of Uppsala, and CEA, Paris
   Thomas Vogl and Hanns-Joachim Weinmann (1996)
Free University of Berlin and Schering AG, Berlin
   Gustav K. von Schulthess and Patrick J. Cozzone (1998)
University Hospital Zurich and Medical Faculty, Marseille
   Peter A. Rinck and Robert N. Muller (Special Award 1998)
University of Mons, Belgium
   Guy Marchal and Chrit T. Moonen (2000)
University of Leuven and University of Bordeaux
   Gerhard Laub and Peter Luyten (2002)
Siemens Medical Systems and Philips Medical Systems
   Klaas P. Prüssmann and Silvio Aime (2004)
University/ETH Zürich and University of Turin
   Christiane Kuhl and Jacques Bittoun (2006)
University of Bonn and CIERM, Paris
   Klaes Golman and Luis Martí-Bonmatí (2008)
Malmö, Sweden, and University of Valencia
   John Griffiths and Stefan Neubauer (2010)
University of Cambridge and University of Oxford
   Erik Odeblad (2012)
University of Umeå

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Erik Odeblad †
31 January 1922 – 17 October 2019

t is with great sadness that we share the news of the pass­ing away of Professor Erik Odeblad of Umeå in Sweden.

The global magnetic resonance community has lost one of its most sincere, devoted and finest scientists in me­di­cal mag­ne­tic re­so­nance ba­sic re­search and app­lica­tion.

Professor Odeblad was the pioneer scientist who showed that the NMR signal of tissues was affected by its chemical and biological surroundings, influencing the relaxation times of tissue. He submitted his results to Acta Radiologica in December 1954; the paper was published in 1955 (Odeblad E, Lindström G: Some preliminary observations on the pro­ton mag­ne­tic re­so­nance in bio­logi­cal samples. Acta Radiol 1955; 43: 469-476).

In the following years he built his own NMR spec­tro­me­ters and con­tinued his work on bio­log­ical samples. In 1966 he became Head of the Department of Me­di­cal Physics at the Uni­ver­sity of Umeå. He published some sixty scientific papers on magnetic resonance in human tissue. He received the European Magnetic Resonance Award in 2012 (picture).

Additional details: Europe celebrates the forgotten pioneer of MRI – Dr. Erik Odeblad.

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Humanitarian Award

single Hu­ma­ni­ta­rian Award was con­fer­red so far. In 2007 the Found­ation gave this Award to Ha­rald Østen­sen of Cluny, France.

For many years Har­ald Østen­sen ex­empli­fied the com­bi­na­tion of ex­tra­or­di­nary achieve­ment with de­cen­cy and bene­vo­lence by or­ga­niz­ing teach­ing cour­ses and sup­port­ing ap­pro­pri­ate means of me­di­cal imag­ing, par­ti­cu­lar­ly in coun­tries with li­mi­ted re­sour­ces. The award was pre­sent­ed at Ce­ci­lien­hof Castle in Pots­dam, Ger­many.

Harald Østensen received his medical education and training in Germany and Norway. He worked as a general practitioner and later as a radiologist in hospitals all over Norway. Until the early 1990s, her was the Managing Director of the NICER courses – continuing education in radiology for world regions lacking the range of medical education available in many rich countries. His group – supported by a medical company – built up a global program, enlisting well-known teachers in radiology from all over the world. The goal was untainted education of the highest possible quality. Østensen then joined the World Health Organization at their headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, in charge of global medical imaging. Again, he put his emphasis on basic and applied teaching and edited numerous books and brochures which were distributed free of charge. One of his main goals in Geneva was the introduction of digital radiography in countries with few resources. He died in 2011.