HISTORY
1936
Born
Dr. Raymond Damadian was born in Queens, New York.
1944–1952
Studied Music
An avid violinist, he attended the famous Juilliard School of Music.
1956
Graduated University Early
Damadian graduated from the University of Wisconsin at age twenty, having won the prestigious Ford Foundation Scholarship for advanced placement in College without having to complete high school.
1960
Completed M.D. Degree
Dr. Damadian received his M.D. Degree from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York
1967
Pursued Research
He chose to enter research medicine instead of pursuing a clinical career as he felt that he would be able to help millions with his research rather than thousands as a clinician. His Postdoctoral studies were completed between 1962 and 1967 at the Washington University School of Medicine and at Harvard Medical School.
1969
Proposed MRI Idea
Dr. Damadian proposed an idea for detecting early stages of cancer after discovering that Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Imaging was able to detect differences in cancerous and non-cancerous cells. He made this discovery during his time as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Internal Medicine of State University of New York, while conducting research on sodium and potassium regulation by the cell.
He set out to develop an instrument “that can be used to scan the human body externally for early signs of malignancy” envisioning that “detection of internal tumors during the earliest stages of their genesis should bring us very close to the total eradication of this disease.”
He set out to develop an instrument “that can be used to scan the human body externally for early signs of malignancy” envisioning that “detection of internal tumors during the earliest stages of their genesis should bring us very close to the total eradication of this disease.”
1977
First MRI Image
Success was finally achieved when the first ever MRI image was made by Dr. Damadian and his two colleagues on July 3,1977, 4:45 am. The road to realizing this vision was a difficult one, with limited resources and funds, with some scoffing at the idea, and with others building on his findings without due recognition of his work.
1988
National Medal of Technology
President Ronald Reagan
1989
National Inventors Hall of Fame
President George H.W. Bush
2001
Lifetime Achievement Award
Lemelson-MIT
2003
Innovation Award in Bioscience
The Economist
2004
Bower Award in Business Leadership
Franklin Institute
Dr. Raymond Damadian
Dr. Damadian gives all the credit to God for providing even the very idea for this invention. However, Dr. Damadian did not always believe in the existence of God. Throughout the difficult course of his research, he was aware that his in-laws were praying for him and began to realize that the prayers of his in-laws were being answered. He describes the obtaining of the specialized wire for the superconducting coils as nothing short of a miracle. With only $15,000 in the research fund, he needed to obtain a length of wire that would have cost 10 times more money than he had. He recounts the telephone call from the company that made the wire that they had an excess amount that they could sell to him for 10 cents on the dollar. It turned out to be exactly the length he needed! These and other things eventually led him to his position as a Bible believer. After his conversion, he grew in faith and served the Lord, strongly advocating for the Biblical record of Creation. He went home to be with the Lord in August 2022.
Dr. Shem Dharampaul
When Dr. Damadian conceived of the idea of detecting tumours using Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Dr. Shem Dharampaul, the interviewer, was not yet even born. He was born in Guyana, South America and had a nominal Christian upbringing. He was advanced a year ahead in Primary School and placed nationally within the top two students on his Common Entrance Exam, earning a position in The Queen’s College. He immigrated to Canada with his family as a young teen. He studied at the University of Alberta, earning a B.Sc. with Honours in Physiology. At the same time (and later during his Medical Studies), he completed several research projects, with publications in multiple scientific journals.
After years of evolutionary teaching in public school and University, Dr. Dharampaul entered Medical School as a firm atheist. However, he found the teaching in Medical School fundamentally at odds with evolutionary dogma, in that mutations were consistently found to cause disease, death, and suffering instead of resulting in life forms becoming bigger, better, smarter and stronger. Moreover, an understanding of the complexity of life and the blueprint for life, DNA, pointed to a designer and Creator. After considering the various concepts of origins and other religions, he came to the conclusion that if there were a God, it had to be the God of the Bible. But it wasn’t until his second year in Medical School that he became converted, becoming a Bible-believing Christian.
It was years after entering practice as a Radiologist and using MRI scanners that he became aware that the inventor of the MRI scanner was a Bible-believer, like himself. In December 2012, he met Dr. Damadian for the first time and arranged to record the interview presented on this website.
After years of evolutionary teaching in public school and University, Dr. Dharampaul entered Medical School as a firm atheist. However, he found the teaching in Medical School fundamentally at odds with evolutionary dogma, in that mutations were consistently found to cause disease, death, and suffering instead of resulting in life forms becoming bigger, better, smarter and stronger. Moreover, an understanding of the complexity of life and the blueprint for life, DNA, pointed to a designer and Creator. After considering the various concepts of origins and other religions, he came to the conclusion that if there were a God, it had to be the God of the Bible. But it wasn’t until his second year in Medical School that he became converted, becoming a Bible-believing Christian.
It was years after entering practice as a Radiologist and using MRI scanners that he became aware that the inventor of the MRI scanner was a Bible-believer, like himself. In December 2012, he met Dr. Damadian for the first time and arranged to record the interview presented on this website.