| Authorised form of name | Hounsfield; Sir; Godfrey Newbold (1919 - 2004) |
| Dates | 1919 - 2004 |
| Nationality | British |
| Place of birth | Newark, Nottinghamshire |
| Date of birth | 28/08/1919 |
| Place of death | Kingston upon Thames, Surrey |
| Date of death | 12/08/2004 |
| Occupation | Engineer and inventor |
| Activity | Education:
Magnus Grammar School, Newark; City and Guilds examination in Radio Communications; diploma from Faraday House Electrical Engineering College, London
Career:
Builder's drawing office; volunteer reservist with RAF during WW2 - radar mechanic instructor working at Royal College of Science and then Cranwell Radar School, RAF Certificate of Merit (1945); joined research staff Electric and Musical Industries (EMI) Hayes (1951) working on first all transistor computer to be constructed in Britain (EMIDEC 1100, 1958), moved to EMI Central Research Laboratories where he developed the EMI brain scanner, first demonstrated at Atkinson Morley's Hospital, Wimbledon in September 1971; Head of Medical Systems Section, Thorn EMI Central Research Laboratories (1972-1976), Chief Staff Scientist (1976-1977), Senior Staff Scientist (1977-1985), Consultant to Laboratories (1986-2004); winner of MacRobert Award (1972) and many other honours including Lasker Award (1975); continued to work as a consultant for EMI after retirement until 2002 and also for National Heart and Chest Hospitals, Chelsea and the National Heart Hospital and the Brompton Hospital; Honorary Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering (1994), received six honorary degrees and more than forty awards; led the team which developed Britain's first large solid state computer and inventor of computerised axial tomography (CAT) scanner for use in clinical diagnosis
Medals and prizes:
Nobel Prize (Physiology or Medicine) 1979
Honours:
CBE 1976; Kt 1981 |
| Membership category | Fellow |
| Date of election | 20/03/1975 |
| Age at election | 55 |
| Royal Society activity | Medals and prizes:
Mullard Medal 1977 |
| Relationships | Youngest of five children of a farmer |
| Sources | Sources:
Obituary in The Daily Telegraph (17 August 2004), The Times (18 August 2004), The Guardian (19 August 2004), Financial Times (20 August 2004), The Independent (20 August 2004)
Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society 2005 vol 51 pp 221-235, plate, by P N T Wells FRS
S.Bates, Liz Beckmann, A Thomaas, P Waltham, "Godfrey Hounsfield. Intuitive Genius of CT" 2014 |
| Virtual International Authority File | http://viaf.org/viaf/166463106 |
| Royal Society code | NA4450 |
Archives associated with this Fellow
| Reference number | Title | Date |
| EC/1975/16 | Hounsfield, Godfrey Newbold: certificate of election to the Royal Society | |
| IM/002263 | Hounsfield, Sir Godfrey Newbold | nd |
| AV/2/11 | Sir Godfrey Hounsfield in discussion with Bill Ingham, former director of EMI Central Research Laboratories | November 1991 |
| IM/002262 | Hounsfield, Sir Godfrey Newbold | c 1972 |
| IM/002264 | Hounsfield, Sir Godfrey Newbold | 1989 |
| MS/838 | The Scanner Research in the Central Research Laboratory of EMI | 2005 |