Godfrey Hounsfield
| Sir Godfrey Hounsfield | |
|---|---|
| Born | Godfrey Newbold Hounsfield 28 August 1919 Nottinghamshire, England |
| Died | 12 August 2004 (aged 84) Kingston upon Thames, Surrey, England |
| Nationality | English |
| Fields | Electrical engineer |
| Known for | |
| Notable awards |
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Sir Godfrey Newbold Hounsfield, CBE, FRS, (28 August 1919 – 12 August 2004) was an English electrical engineer who shared the 1979 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine with Allan McLeod Cormack for his part in developing the diagnostic technique of X-ray computed tomography (CT).
His name is immortalised in the Hounsfield scale, a quantitative measure of radiodensity used in evaluating CT scans. The scale is defined in Hounsfield units (symbol HU), running from air at −1000 HU, through water at 0 HU, and up to dense cortical bone at +1000 HU and more.
Hounsfield was born in Sutton-on-Trent (near Newark-on-Trent), Nottinghamshire, England on 28 August 1919. He was the youngest of five children (two brothers, two sisters). As a child he was fascinated by the electrical gadgets and machinery found all over his parents' farm. Between the ages of eleven and eighteen, he tinkered with his own electrical recording machines, launched himself off haystacks with his own home-made glider, and almost killed himself by using water filled tar barrels and acetylene to see how high they could be waterjet propelled. He attended the Magnus Grammar School (now Magnus Church of England School) in Newark-on-Trent and excelled in physics and arithmetic.
Shortly before World War II, he joined the Royal Air Force as a volunteer reservist where he learned the basics of electronics and radar. After the war, he attended Faraday House Electrical Engineering College in London, graduating with the DFH (Diploma of Faraday House). Faraday House was a specialist Electrical Engineering college that provided university level education and was established in 1890, before the advent of most university engineering departments. Faraday House pioneered the use of sandwich courses, combining practical experience with theoretical study.
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