The European Magnetic Resonance Forum
he European Magnetic Resonance Forum (EMRF) originated at the university laboratory of Nobel Prize winner Paul C. Lauterbur in the United States in 1982 when some of the European research group members decided that the ideas and basics of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) should be brought and taught to European scienists and medical doctors.
It is the oldest interdisciplinary institution in Europe devoted to medical and biological magnetic resonance, bridging the gap between the exact sciences and academic medicine.
The first Annual Meeting of the EMRF, i.e., the first "European Workshop on Magnetic Resonance in Medicine" was held in Mons, Belgium, in 1983, followed by meetings in Wiesbaden, Copenhagen, Monte Carlo, London, Berlin, Amsterdam, Strasbourg, Zurich, Cologne, and Locarno. All these meetings were strictly "invited speakers only". SMRM (today ISMRM), the US-based Society of Magnetic Resonance in Medicine, was the international scientific partner and thus introduced to Europe. The conferences combined one-day multilingual basic courses with a two-day overview of the state-of-the-art of MR technology, and imaging and spectroscopy applications.
Robert N. Muller, a professor of chemistry (left), and Peter A. Rinck, a professor of radiology (right), are the driving force behind EMRF since 1982. They worked together in Paul C. Lauterbur's laboratory at the State University of New York.
In 1987, EMRF agreed to cooperate with the young European Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine and Biology and, after sponsoring the Society since its early days, to support it with the aim of creating one major annual European MR conference and a network to continue EMRF's teaching courses. Both Peter A. Rinck and Robert N. Muller were presidents of ESMRMB and helped stabilizing the European Society during its first years of existence.
In 1987 in London, EMRF as the conference organizer still deputized for the European Society; the meeting in Berlin in 1988 was the first one arranged together by both organizations. The Berlin meeting was a big step forward in the number of participants: 1,100 were officially counted, compared to 250-300 who attended the prior annual meetings. The tremendous success was also due to the fact that this meeting was open to proffered papers. However, the size also changed its mood from a "family" size conference to a more commercially influenced meeting.
After organizing together three more conferences, the collaboration with the European Society was discontinued in 1991. The EMRF Foundation was to focus again on scientific courses and small meetings, whereas the ESMRMB was to aim upon annual meetings as a platform for the presentation of European output in MR research and application. EMRF is no membership society, but has a small scientific membership arm (ESMR) to complement its efforts. It is independent of any commercial influence and interests.
Since then, EMRF has not been involved in large scale conferences but has focused upon small size meetings with less than 250 participants ("State-of-the-Art" meetings), less than 80 participants ("Special Topic" meetings) and less than 30 participants (special courses and symposia). The first one after the separation from ESMRMB was "Progress in MRI" in Switzerland in 1992 (picture).
Over the years, several thousand participants from all over the world received an introduction to basic and advanced magnetic resonance and its applications in medicine at such special teaching courses. More than 250 outstanding scientists in their field from Europe and North America shared their knowledge with these participants.
The Foundation has arranged numerous teaching and continuing education courses, mostly in English, but also in French, Spanish, Italian, German, and Russian. Dedicated seminars were aimed at advanced basic and clinical science applications. Upon request, the Foundation will support teaching courses by supplying teaching material and sponsoring speakers. However, strict rules and standards apply for such sponsorships.
Since 1983, EMRF (and TRTF) arranged conferences, special topic meetings, and courses all over Europe, as well as in the Middle East and South America.
Widening the Scope and Collaborations
lowly, new objectives were added. During the last thirty years, the Foundation was increasingly approached to provide travel grants, mostly by young scientists from the former East bloc and developing countries. This includes grants for conferences organized by the EMRF, but also for the European Congress of Radiology (picture) and the annual meetings of the European Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine and Biology. There has also been an increase in applications for training and research grants, computer equipment, and even clinical radiological equipment. Increased sponsorship, mostly from private sources, has made it possible to add to the number of travel and educational grants.
Since 1985, there was an intensive collaboration with the World Health Organization, both with WHO's Headquarters in Geneva and with WHO's Regional Office in Copenhagen. WHO sponsored the EMRF meetings in Copenhagen, Monte Carlo, and London, thus — during the times of the Iron Curtain – opening a door for participants with political travel restrictions.
This sponsorship continued in 1993 when EMRF organized a major conference on "The Impact of MRI on the Health System — Integration of MRI into the Health System and Development of Diagnostic Pathways for its Proper Use" in Lugano and in 2001 with "MRI in Small Communities" (picture).
Speakers at the opening session of the conference on "The Rational Use of Diagnostic Imaging" in Lugano, Switzerland, in 1993: Josef Lissner, Albert Baert, and Alexander Margulis — introducing scientific MR imaging to a medical audience.
Scientific Exchange
mong the special topic seminars organized by EMRF which were important for the developement of research in MR imaging list: "Flow, Diffusion, and Perfusion" (Namur, 1985), "Paramagnetic Contrast Agents in the Central Nervous System" (Düsseldorf, 1989), "Three-Dimensional MRI — An Integrated Update of Three-Dimensional Magnetic Resonance Imaging and Three-Dimensional Postprocessing" (Obergurgl, 1992), "New Frontiers in MRI: Heart, Lungs, New Technologies" (St. Moritz, 1996), and "Ethics in Diagnostic Imaging" (Sophia Antipolis, 1999; several follow-ups, the last one in 2024).
Biennial meetings are devoted to the development and applications of contrast agents in MR imaging. The first one was arranged in Trondheim in 1988, followed by conferences in Bordeaux in 1990; Hamburg in 1992; Santiago de Compostela in 1994; Santa Margherita Ligure in 1996; Fuschl (Salzburg) in 1998; Attard (Malta) in 2000; Budapest in 2002, Porto in 2004, Vilnius in 2006, Valencia in 2008, Mons 2010 — and, after reorganization of the infrastructure, a meeting by invitation only in Portugal in late summer 2012, the 14th conference in the series in Spain in February 2013, the 15th in France in 2015, and the 16th in Belgium in 2019.
EMRF's effort to bring together researchers and physicians wanting to apply MRI and MRS fell on a fruitful soil with seminars organized with the Polish Academy of Sciences in Poznan in 1985 and 1987, as well as with the Centro Internacional de Fisica and UNESCO in Bogotá, Colombia. Teaching courses were also organized in Hungary, Greece, Norway, France, Egypt, and for several commercial companies at their facilities.
The first meeting in South America 1986 (top); group picture of participants from all over South America after a three-day Teaching Course covering the basics of MR imaging in Bogotá, Colombia, in 1990 (center); and Welcome Reception before a conference in Valencia, Spain, in 2013 (bottom).
Textbooks and Awards
MRF's textbook "Magnetic Resonance in Medicine" developed into one of the most successful scientific textbooks in the field. Six printed editions were published since 1984, and the book was translated into German, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Russian, Japanese, and Chinese. It even had a Russian samizdat version during the time of the Soviet Union. More ….
Since 1986, the European Magnetic Resonance Forum and The Round Table Foundation confered 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 were granted, one for advances in medical applications and one for research in basic sciences; in a number of years, the Awards were combined. Since 1994, the Award was biennial. Meanwhile the peak of research in magnetic resonance imaging has passed and it was decided that the Award will be only given at special occasions.
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 European Magnetic Resonance 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
Spring/summer edition 2025.
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