for outstanding achievement
The achievements of Professor John Mallard, the first Professor of Medical Physics at the University of Aberdeen, will today be recognised when he receives Royal recognition alongside two other individuals whose work has brought about public benefits on a global scale.
HRH The Princess Royal will present Royal Medals to Professor John Mallard, Professor Sir Alfred Cuschieri, and Professor Sir Alan Peacock at a Jubilee Dinner ceremony to be held in the Signet Library today, .
The Medallists have been selected by The Royal Society of Edinburgh (RSE), Scotland's National Academy, in recognition of intellectual endeavour which has had a profound influence on people's lives world-wide. Designed and produced in Scotland and encompassing all intellectual disciplines, three prestigious, eighteen-carat gold medals are awarded through the RSE each year.
This is the second-year running that a RSE Gold Medal has been presented to an academic from the University of Aberdeen. Professor Tom Devine, Director of the University's Research Institute of Irish and Scottish Studies, was presented with a Gold Medal at a special ceremony at Holyrood in July 2001.
Professor C Duncan Rice, Principal & Vice-Chancellor, at the University of Aberdeen, was delighted to learn of Professor Mallard's accolade. He said: "I would personally like to congratulate Professor Mallard on behalf of the University, on receiving a Royal Gold Medal. It is an honour he richly deserves.
"The University is immensely proud of its pioneering work in medical imaging, particularly in MRI, which has been down to the efforts of Professor Mallard. Thanks to him, Aberdeen has been at the cutting edge of medical imaging and patients in Scotland and far beyond have benefited from the medical advances he has introduced in the field of medical imaging and diagnosis."
President of the RSE, Sir William Stewart, said: "Her Majesty, our Patron, honours us greatly in naming these distinguished individuals as recipients of the prestigious Royal Medals for 2002. Through outstanding scholarship, in advances in medical imaging and diagnosis, in developments in keyhole surgery and in major contributions to public policy, the Medallists have had a profound influence on the lives of people in Scotland and far beyond. Scotland has a proud heritage of achievement, discovery and enterprise."
Professor John R Mallard OBE FRSE, will receive his medal in recognition of his work as an outstanding pioneer in the field of medical imaging and diagnosis. For over 30 years, thanks to the efforts of the scientific teams in the Department of Biomedical Physics and Bioengineering under the guidance of Professor John Mallard, Aberdeen has been at the cutting edge of medical imaging. Professor Mallard has developed two of the most important diagnostic technologies of the 20th century, namely Nuclear Medicine and Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Imaging (NMRI). Whilst at Hammersmith Hospital, John Mallard built the first radionuclide imaging device in the UK and was also involved in the first European brain tumour imaging trials. As the University of Aberdeen's first Professor of Medical Physics, his group was responsible for some of the major discoveries which led to this technique becoming clinically viable. Since the first clinically viable MRI was produced in 1980, Professor Mallard's technique has benefited many thousands of people. Professor Mallard is the recipient of many honours and medals.