George Radda
Template:Short description Template:EngvarB Template:Use dmy dates Template:Infobox scientist
Sir George Charles Radda Template:Postnominals (Template:Langx; 9 June 1936 – 13 September 2024) was a Hungarian-British chemist.
BiographyEdit
Radda was born in Hungary on 9 June 1936.<ref name=Birth>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In 1957, he attended Merton College, Oxford, to study chemistry and worked on electrophilic aromatic substitution with Richard Norman and Jeremy Knowles,<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> having set aside an earlier interest in literary criticism.<ref name=NewSci /><ref name="heart">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> His early work was concerned with the development and use of fluorescent probes for the study of structure and function of membranes and enzymes. He became interested in using spectroscopic methods including nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) to study complex biological material.<ref name="heart"/> In 1974, his research paper was the first to introduce the use of NMR to study tissue metabolites. In 1981, he and his colleagues published the first scientific report on the clinical application of his work. This resulted in the installation of a magnet large enough to accommodate the whole human body for NMR investigations in 1983 at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford.<ref name="heart"/><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
In 1982 Radda published work concerning the relationship between deoxygenated haemoglobin and the NMR signal.<ref>Template:Cite Q</ref>
From 1996 until his retirement in 2003, Radda was Chief Executive of the Medical Research Council in the UK.<ref name='timesobit'>Template:Cite news</ref> In 2009 he was appointed chairman of the Biomedical Research Council in Singapore.<ref name='timesobit'/>
Radda died on 13 September 2024, at the age of 88.<ref>Elhunyt Radda György Károly professzor Template:In lang</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
AwardsEdit
Radda received numerous prestigious awards and honours for his pioneering efforts in using spectroscopic techniques for metabolic studies, including a Buchanan Medal in 1987.<ref name="RSbuch" /> He was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 1993 Birthday Honours for services to science, and knighted in the 2000 Birthday Honours for services to biomedical science.<ref>United Kingdom: Template:London Gazette</ref><ref name=GB>United Kingdom: Template:London Gazette</ref>
In addition, he was a Fellow of Merton College, Oxford,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> a Fellow of the Royal Society<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> and was a British Heart Foundation Professor of Molecular Cardiology.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> He has also been awarded many distinguished prizes throughout his scientific career. He was an Honorary Member of the American Heart Association<ref name="heart" /> and was awarded the Citation for International Achievement.<ref name="heart" />
In 2015, he was conferred an award as an Honorary Citizen of Singapore.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
In 2018 he was awarded the Hungarian Corvin Chain. This is the second highest Hungarian state decoration and is awarded to persons who have made an outstanding contribution to the improvement of Hungarian public thought, science and culture.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
ReferencesEdit
External linksEdit
Interview with George Radda for the International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine