Niels A. Lassen

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Niels Alexander Lassen (December 7, 1926 in Copenhagen - April 30, 1997 in Copenhagen) was a Danish medical doctor and pioneer of neuroimaging.

His father, H.C.A. Lassen, was professor at the University of Copenhagen, and Niels Lassen graduated as medical doctor from the same university in 1951. With his collegue Ole Munck he began in the 1950's to use radioactive isotopes for the measurement of the blood circulation in the brain, and in the beginning of the 1960's he together with David H. Ingvar from University of Lund began the development of methods for regional measurements on the brain with krypton-85 and xenon-133 isotopes. These efforts were summarized in a Scientific American article in 1978^[1]. He has been called the greatest Danish brain researcher since Niels Steensen.

He was employed at the Bispebjerg Hospital from 1962 to 1996 and wrote more than 600 articles. He was married to Edda Sveinsdottir who as a computer scientist helped with the development of the (at that time) advanced computer technology for image construction of the regional brain measurements.

There is a Niels A. Lassen Award (Danish: "Niels A. Lassen Prisen"). The Danish medical doctor, brain researcher and "science entertainer" Peter Lund Madsen was a student of Niels A. Lassen, and Peter Lund Madsen received the Niels A. Lassen Award in 2002^[2]. Niels Lassen himself received the Novo Nordisk Prize i 1968^[3].

[edit] Bibliography

• Niels A. Lassen, William A. Perl, Tracer kinetic methods in medical physiology, Raven, New York, 1979. ISBN 0-89004-114-8.

[edit] Sources

• Olaf B. Paulson, "Niels A. Lassen (1926-1997)", In Festskrift. Dansk Neurologisk Selskab 1900-2000, Jørgen Therkelsen (editor), Lægeforeningens forlag, Copenhagen, 2000.
• Lars Friberg, Albert Gjedde, "In memoriam: Niels A. Lassen, 7 December 1926 - 30 April 1997", European Journal of Nuclear Medicine, 24(9):1083-1084, 1997 September.
• Olaf B. Paulson (1997). "Niels A. Lassen, M.D., Ph.D.: 1926–1997". Journal of Cerebral Blood Flow & Metabolism 17: 1005–1006. DOI:10.1097/00004647-199710000-00001. 

[edit] Notes

1. ^ Niels A. Lassen, David H. Ingvar, Erik Skinhøj, "Brain Function and Blood Flow", Scientific American, 239(4):50-59, 1978 October.
2. ^ "Niels A. Lassen Prisen 2002", Ugeskrift for Læger, 165(04):354, 2003.
3. ^ Novo Nordisk Foundation, The Novo Nordisk Prize.