Jürgen Hennig

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Jürgen Hennig (2010)

Jürgen Klaus Hennig (born March 5, 1951 in Stuttgart ) is a German chemist and medical physicist . He is internationally recognized as one of the pioneers of magnetic resonance imaging in clinical diagnostics . He is Scientific Director of the Diagnostic X-ray Department and Chairman of the Magnetic Resonance Development and Application Center at the Freiburg University Clinic . In 2003 he was awarded the Max Planck Research Prize in the biosciences / medicine category.

Life

Scientific career

From 1969 to 1977 Hennig studied chemistry in Stuttgart, London, Munich and Freiburg. From 1977 to 1981 he was a research assistant at the Institute for Physical Chemistry at the Albert Ludwig University of Freiburg , where he wrote his doctoral thesis on NMR studies of intramolecular exchange kinetics under the direction of Herbert Zimmermann . During this time, Hennig first came into contact with magnetic resonance tomography (MRT) through the inaugural lecture given by his supervisor Hans-Heinrich Limbach on the work of the later Nobel Prize winner Paul Lauterbur .

From 1982 to 1983 Hennig was a post-doc at the University of Zurich , where he worked in the field of CIDNP spectroscopy . He developed his first own NMR pulse sequence in 1982 to measure intramolecular exchange processes. During his time in Zurich, Hennig decided to work in the field of NMR method development and less in the field of chemistry .

Hennig began his work at the Freiburg University Hospital in 1984 as a research assistant in the X-ray diagnostics department . There he developed the RARE method in close cooperation with Bruker Medizintechnik GmbH. He completed his habilitation in 1989 at the Medical Faculty of the Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg with the subject of “Special recording techniques for magnetic resonance tomography” .

In 1993 Hennig received a professorship at the University Clinic Freiburg as head of the MR tomography work group in the X-ray diagnostics department. In 1998 he was appointed head of the Imaging and Functional Medical Physics section of the Diagnostic X-ray Department. In 2001 Hennig became research director of the X-ray diagnostics department. In the same year he founded the Magnetic Resonance Development and Application Center (MRDAC) at the Freiburg University Clinic . A co-optation to the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics at the Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg followed in 2002.

Hennig was appointed to a C4 professorship at the Freiburg University Clinic in 2004 and has been the Scientific Director of the X-ray Diagnostics Department since then. The working group he set up and led since 1984 for research and development in the field of magnetic resonance tomography had grown to around 80 employees by the end of 2012.

Hennig was President of the International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine (ISMRM) in 1999. Since 2008 he has been a visiting professor at the Wisconsin Institute for Medical Research at the University of Wisconsin – Madison . Since 2011 he has been a member of the National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina .

Work

Hennig made numerous fundamental contributions to the development of magnetic resonance tomography (MRT).

Based on the CPMG multi-echo method, Hennig developed the RARE sequence (Rapid Acquisition with Relaxation Enhancement) in 1984. Thanks to his work, the MRI exposure time could be significantly shortened, which was a decisive step for its use in clinical routine. In addition, RARE enables the diagnostically relevant T2 contrast of the MRI to be controlled. The RARE method was first published in 1984 in the German journal “Der Radiologe”. A first attempt at international publication was initially rejected, with the comment that this method had already been tried and did not work. International publications followed in 1986. RARE is currently one of the standard methods in medical MRI. The method is also known by the acronyms TSE (Turbo Spin Echo) and FSE (Fast Spin Echo).

The hyperecho method was published by Hennig in 2001. This means that the specific absorption rate (SAR) of a RARE sequence can be significantly reduced while almost completely maintaining the image quality. This is important for the medical application of MRT with a high flux density of the main magnetic field .

Hennig published a concept for imaging with nonlinear magnetic field gradients in 2008. This allows the image resolution in the MRI of the brain to be increased in its outer areas.

Numerous patents on new MR methods have emerged from Hennig's work.

Connections to Asia

In 1985 Hennig traveled to China to build one of the first MR tomographs in China in Guangzhou . On December 25, 1985, the first MR image recorded in China was achieved. Then he was on site for further MRT installations in China.

Hennig has been President of the European-Chinese Society for Clinical Magnetic Resonance, which he founded at the time, since 1993 . He is an honorary member of the Chinese Radiological Society. In 2011, Hennig was appointed "Einstein Professor" at the Chinese Academy of Sciences . In 2010 he received the Tsungming Tu Prize , Taiwan's highest scientific award.

Hennig has been a member of the Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Tatarstan since 2004 . He also works with Hong Kong, South Korea and Singapore.

Awards

Quotes

"I hardly had the feeling of being 'inventive', I only applied what I learned about spin physics during my time in physical chemistry to the question at hand."

- Jürgen Hennig : in "How RARE came to China" about the development of the RARE sequence

"The world (and the world of MR in particular) is full of 'impossible' things that have made it into reality."

- Jürgen Hennig : in "Ultra high field MR: useful instruments or toys for the boys?"

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. J. Hennig: Physico-chemical investigations of the vibration tunnel effect in intramolecular hydrogen migration in tetraarylporphines . Freiburg 1980.
  2. a b c d e J. Hennig: How RARE Came to China: Early Days of MRI . In: Encyclopedia of Magnetic Resonance . 2010, doi : 10.1002 / 9780470034590.emrhp1025 .
  3. J. Hennig, HH Limbach: Magnetization transfer in the rotating frame: A new simple kinetic tool for the determination of rate constants in the slow chemical exchange range . In: J Magn Reson . tape 49 , no. 2 , 1982, p. 322-328 , doi : 10.1016 / 0022-2364 (82) 90195-0 .
  4. ^ A b J. Hennig, A. Nauerth, H. Friedburg: RARE imaging: A fast imaging method for clinical MR . In: Magn Reson Med . tape 3 , no. 6 , 1986, pp. 823-833 , doi : 10.1002 / mrm.1910030602 .
  5. J. Hennig, A. Nauerth, H. Friedburg, D. Ratzel: A new rapid image method for magnetic resonance tomography . In: Radiologist . tape 24 , 1984, pp. 579-580 .
  6. ^ J. Hennig, H. Friedburg, B. Strobel: Rapid nontomographic approach to MR myelography without contrast agents . In: J Comput Assist Tomogr . tape 10 , no. 3 , 1986, pp. 375-378 .
  7. ^ J. Hennig, K. Scheffler: Hyperechoes . In: Magn Reson Med . tape 46 , no. 1 , 2001, p. 6-12 , doi : 10.1002 / mrm.1153 .
  8. ^ J. Hennig, A. Welz, G. Schultz, J. Korvink, Z. Liu, O. Speck, M. Zaitsev: Parallel imaging in non-bijective, curvilinear magnetic field gradients: a concept study . In: Magn Reson Mater Phy . tape 21 , 2008, p. 5-14 , doi : 10.1007 / s10334-008-0105-7 .
  9. ^ Winner of the European Magnetic Resonance Award
  10. ^ Awardee of the International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine
  11. Freiburg medical physicist receives an honorary doctorate. Press release from January 15, 2014 at Informationsdienst Wissenschaft (idw-online.de)
  12. ^ Hounsfield Memorial Lecture. In: www.hounsfieldlecture.org. Retrieved July 21, 2016 .
  13. ^ Alfred Breit Prize | DRG.de. In: www.drg.de. Retrieved July 21, 2016 .
  14. ^ J. Hennig: Ultra high field MR: useful instruments or toys for the boys? In: Magn Reson Mater Phy . tape 21 , 2008, p. 1-3 , doi : 10.1007 / s10334-008-0109-3 .