Prof. Sir Peter Mansfield, FRS, has worked in the Department of Physics at the University of Nottingham, England, UK,since 1964.   He is credited with showing how the transient radio signals from MRI can be mathematically analyzed, making interpretation of the signals into a useful image a possibility.  He is also credited with discovering how fast imaging could be possible by developing the MRI protocol called echo-planar imaging.  Echo-planar imaging allows T2* weighted images to be collected many times faster than previously possible.  It also has made functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) feasible.

He was awarded the 2003 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his discoveries concerning magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).  The Nobel Prize was shared with Paul Lauterbur, who also contributed to the development of MRI.   For decades magnetic resonance was used mainly for studying the chemical structure of substances.  It was not until the 1970s with Lauterbur's and Mansfield's developments that NMR could be used to produce images of the body.