When athletes get hurt, they often undergo an MRI to determinethe severity of their injuries.
Magnetic Resonance Imaging may not have been possible if not forRichard Ernst and other award-winning scientists who helped developnuclear magnetic resonance technology. Ernst will speak twiceFriday in The Zone, in the FedEx Institute of Technology.
"The MRI relates very closely to (Ernst's) discovery," saidbiomedical engineering professor Erno Lindner, who is responsiblefor bringing Ernst to The U of M.
The first of two lectures will be held at 10 a.m. and willconcentrate on Ernst's Nobel Prize-winning work.
The second lecture, scheduled at 3 p.m., will focus on theresponsibilities of scientists, especially those who teach intoday's world.
"When a Nobel Laureate comes to speak at The University ofMemphis so (students and faculty) can listen first hand, it's a bigthing," Lindner said.
Ernst won the 1991 Nobel Prize for Chemistry for hiscontribution to high-resolution nuclear magnetic resonancespectroscopy. In simpler terms, Ernst and other contributors haveallowed scientists to study material more closely than everbefore.
"Hearing a Nobel Prize winner is a real educational experience,"said James Penrod, professor of higher education leadership andmember of the Marcus Orr Lectureship committee. "There are not alot of these people around."
In his autobiography, Ernst said he became interested inchemistry at the age of 13 when he found chemicals in the attic ofhis house in Winterthur, Germany.
"I became fascinated by the possibilities of (chemical)reactions, some of which led to explosions and others to anunbearable poisoning of the air in our house," he said.
If Ernst weren't a Nobel Prize-winning chemist, we may be goingto hear his instrument instead of his theories, as he played thecello and tried his hand at musical composition during highschool.
Both lectures are free and open to the public.
