2022
Fireside Chats

Organized by the ISMRM Ad Hoc Historical Archive Committee

MONDAY AFTERNOON

Professor Paul Lauterbur at Stony Brook and Illinois

A Fireside Chat with…
Charles Springer & Bradley Sutton

09 May at 14:45 BST (London)

Location: ExCeL London, ICC Capital Suite Hall (Balcony above registration area)

Moderator: Xiaohong Joe Zhou

This Campfire Chat features several inspiring stories of Professor Paul Lauterbur – founding father of our field and our Society. In a talk titled “Starting MRI on the Beach: Long Island Chemistry,” Dr. Charles Springer will bring us back to the exciting days when the idea of MRI was developed and implemented at SUNY Stony Brook. This will be followed by a talk – “Perfecting MRI in a Cornfield” given by Dr. Brad Sutton to highlight Dr. Lauterbur’s legacy at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Photographs, lab notebooks, early MR images, and other memorabilia will be shown, together with stories around them. The session will conclude with informal and interactive discussions that involve the speakers, Dr. Lauterbur’s former trainees, and the audience.

MONDAY EVENING

Pioneers of Diffusion MRI

A Fireside Chat with…
Peter Basser, Denis Le Bihan, Robert Turner, Richard Ehman, Mike Moseley

09 May at 17:00 BST (London)

Location: Gather.town North East Campfire Room

Moderator: Derek Jones

This campfire takes us back to the “formative decade” (1984-1994) of diffusion MRI and diffusion tensor MRI, hearing from our field’s founding figures. We will hear from: Mike Moseley and Richard Ehman about how diffusion impacted their estimates of T2; David Taylor and Denis Le Bihan about the earliest in ovo and in vivo diffusion MR images; Bob Turner about making DWI practical by combining diffusion MRI with EPI; and Peter Basser about the invention of diffusion tensor MRI. This campfire, hosted by Derek Jones, will provide ample opportunities to quiz these legends about the time diffusion MRI “came of age.”

TUESDAY AFTERNOON

Pioneers of Spin-Warp Method, and Early Concepts Around Phase Encoding

A Fireside Chat with…
Glyn Johnson & Thomas Redpath

10 May at 14:30 BST (London)

Location: Gather.town North East Campfire Room

Moderator: Gregory Hurst

The University of Aberdeen team made multiple seminal contributions to MRI as is it known and practiced today. Their early grasp of the dephasing and rephasing effects of gradient fields, as applied to slice selection, phase encoding, and readout gradient pulses, led to the 2DFT “Spin Warp” pulse sequence, which immediately became – and remains – the core image encoding and reconstruction methodology underlying the vast majority of clinical MRI scans today. Retired Professors Glyn Johnson and Tom Redpath – the surviving authors of the landmark 1980 paper introducing Spin Warp MRI – will share their recollections of influences, insights, motivations, interactions, and events from those fertile early years at Aberdeen.

TUESDAY EVENING

Early MR in India

A Fireside Chat with…
Jagan Jagannathan

10 May at 16:45 BST (London)

Location: ExCeL London, ICC Capital Suite Hall (Balcony above registration area)

Moderator: Jürgen Hennig

During mid-1985, India had the first MRI scanner, and slowly it started to be used for routine diagnosis in most hospitals across India. As an initiator of MRI and the culture of MRI research, I share the experiences of hurdles, difficulties and challenges faced during the early days in India under challenging economic circumstances at that time, along with my other Indian colleagues present in this meeting. Also, an overview of the current efforts for the development of indigenous MR in India, under the “Make in India” program initiated by the Prime Minster of India, would also be highlighted.

WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON

Pioneers of Diffusion MRI

A Fireside Chat with…
Peter Basser, Denis Le Bihan, Robert Turner, Richard Ehman, Mike Moseley

11 May at 14:30 BST (London)

Location: ExCeL London, ICC Capital Suite Hall (Balcony above registration area)

Moderator: Derek Jones

This campfire takes us back to the “formative decade” (1984-1994) of diffusion MRI and diffusion tensor MRI, hearing from our field’s founding figures. We will hear from: Mike Moseley and Richard Ehman about how diffusion impacted their estimates of T2; Denis Le Bihan about the earliest in ovo and in vivo diffusion MR images; Bob Turner about making DWI practical by combining diffusion MRI with EPI; and Peter Basser about the invention of diffusion tensor MRI. This campfire, hosted by Derek Jones, will provide ample opportunities to quiz these legends about the time diffusion MRI “came of age.”

WEDNESDAY EVENING

Pioneers of Gradient Systems

A Fireside Chat with…
Franz Schmitt, Peter Dietz, Bob Turner, Johan Overweg, Peter Roemer

11 May at 16:45 BST (London)

Location: ExCeL London, ICC Capital Suite Hall (Balcony above registration area)

Moderator: Brian Rutt

This Historical Campfire will bring together five pioneers of gradient systems development in a “fireside chat” format. Pioneers will tell stories about the inventions, technology development and early papers in the gradient systems field, for example around the development of design methods, shielded gradients, high performance gradients and gradient amplifiers. A computer/screen will be available to display images or videos; in addition, pioneers have been encouraged to bring / show memorabilia. In addition to roasting marshmallows, attendees (especially junior investigators) will be encouraged to ask questions of and interact with the pioneers, in an informal and comfortable format.