William A. Edelstein

William A. Edelstein (November 21, 1944 – February 10, 2014) was an American physicist. One of the key developers of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), he was part of the team that developed the first full-body MRI scanner at the University of Aberdeen, Scotland, and was the primary inventor of spin-warp imaging, which is still used in all commercial MRI systems.

Edelstein's contributions to MRI technology include pulse sequence optimization, radio-frequency-coil and gradient-coil design, circuitry improvements, high field imaging, acoustic noise reduction, and the NMR Phased Array.

Early life and education Edelstein was born in Gloversville, New York, to Arthur S. Edelstein, an optometrist, and Hannah Edelstein. His father was stationed in Myanmar with the United States Air Force and did not meet his son until he was a year old. His family was Jewish.

He grew up in Schenectady, New York and Utica, New York before moving to Northbrook, Illinois, where he graduated from Glenbrook North High School in 1962. He received a Bachelor of Science in physics from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in 1965, graduating summa cum laude. He then attended Harvard University, earning a master's degree in physics in 1967, followed by his Ph.D. in 1974. His thesis, on nuclear physics, was supervised by Robert Pound.

After 21 years at GE, he founded MRScience LLC, through which he continued to work on the technology. He received an honorary doctorate from the University of Aberdeen in 2007 and the 2013 Alumni Achievement Award from the University of Illinois.

Personal life Edelstein met his wife, psychologist Fiona (née Jones), while living in Glasgow. They married in 1977 and had a son, physicist Arthur Edelstein, and two daughters, writer Jean Hannah Edelstein and linguist Elspeth (Edelstein) Barras.

Edelstein died of lung cancer on February 10, 2014, at his home in Northwood, Baltimore.