On Oct. 6, 2003, American chemist Paul Lauterbur and British physicist Peter Mansfield made pioneering contributions during the 1970s which led to the application of magnetic resonance in medical imaging. They share the 2003 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.

The term “nuclear magnetic resonance” (NMR) was dropped because it was feared that people would associate it with atomic radiation. The technique was renamed “magnetic resonance imaging.