when was mri invented

Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) was invented in the early 1970s. The key breakthrough was made by Paul C. Lauterbur in 1971 when he developed a method to encode spatial information into a nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) signal using magnetic field gradients. He published this theory in 1973 and created the first images with this technique. The first full-body MRI scan of a human was completed by Dr. Raymond Damadian and his team on July 3, 1977, producing the first human NMR image of a chest cross-section. The first clinical MRI scanners were installed in the early 1980s, leading to widespread clinical use thereafter. Lauterbur and Peter Mansfield were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2003 for their contributions to MRI development.