The Russell Varian Prize 2015 has been awarded to Malcolm H. Levitt, Professor of Physical Chemistry and Head of Magnetic Resonance in the Department of Chemistry.
Professor Levitt was presented with the prize on 5 July, at the EUROMAR 2015 Congress in Prague, for his article: Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) population inversion using a composite pulse which was published in 1979 in the Journal of Magnetic Resonance.
NMR is a method used by physicists, chemists, and biologists to investigate the molecular structure of matter. In the form of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), the method is widely used in hospitals to make three-dimensional images of the interior of the human body.
Further information on Professor Levitt’s research can be found here.
Commenting on the award, Professor Levitt said:
“It is very gratifying that a neat trick I devised as an undergraduate project student in Oxford has been selected for such a prominent award in the field of nuclear magnetic resonance.”
The Russell Varian prize honours the memory of the pioneer behind the first commercial Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) spectrometers.