Farewell to Dr. John Schenck

John Schenck Obituary--https://www.simplechoicescremation.com/obituaries/john-schenck-md-phd

John was a great mentor and friend to many who worked in the General Electric MRI Laboratory since its inception in the 1980s. As the obituary above describes it well, he was a true pioneer of modern MRI who invented the fingerprint gradient coils, co-invented the birdcage coil, and advocated for patient safety. His comprehensive review of the role of magnetic susceptibility in MRI (https://aapm.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1118/1.597854) is one of the most highly regarded and frequently consulted papers on magnet safety and MRI engineering. He was the early champion of high-performance head-only MRI scanners that are now blooming within and outside the GE company. Having first met him in GE in late 2008, I perhaps only saw a late glimpse of his celebrated career. I was impressed by how he did not look like an authority that he was in the profession; being genuinely nice and approachable, considerate and sensitive, he did not impose himself to push, intercept or hijack conversations as many people in his status (e.g. ISMRM gold medalist) often do. I was particularly enamored by his phenomenal memory and engaging story-telling when it came to lunch time (and cake club!) gossips and small talks. I wrote a grant proposal with him in 2015, which, unfortunately, did not succeed with NIH. I nevertheless pushed for the research, on habenular imaging, when I was in Korea, and published the results in 2020 (https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-75733-y) with John. After I came back to GE, John had retired but I published a belated paper on the general theory of fingerprint coil design, with John as the second and only coauthor. When it was published in Journal of Applied Physics in 2023, I wondered if this may be his last appearance in research publication. From a quick search this unfortunately appears to be the case. Thank you John for all you did and all you were! I was honored to cross paths with you!

Wisconsin in March

 

The picture above is from a dinner gathering with two Korean families during a business trip to Waukesha, Wisconsin. The future of the magnetic resonance imaging technologies that actually matter to the patients is in the hands of these hard-working and selfless engineers!

University of Iowa in February

Carver Biomedical Research Building of University of Iowa houses the world's first MAGNUS scanner installed in a non-military academic research site. It also has the latest GE Signa 7T human scanner. The investigational Signa MAGNUS 3T scanner recently got an upgrade & repair, and the 7T scanner now has a fully functional parallel transmit capability. This building must be where some of the early 7T brain images were produced, which I obtained from somebody in 2017 in order to compare GE and Siemens 7T images. The building in the picture reminds me of the other building in Korea in a parallel universe, with their expensive facilities, shiny walls, and the energy of young graduate students flocking around a cafeteria.  

King's College London published article on Magnus

King's College London published an on-line news article on the newly installed MAGNUS scanner and its many promising applications. Prof. Steve Williams of the Center for Neuroimaging Sciences (not the other way as in Korea) appeared in a video, along with Dr. Flavio Dell'Acqua, to explain how the scanner is poised to open new fronts in human neuroimaging research.

High (gradient) performance neuroimaging conference in London

This was the 4th annual meeting on high-performance brain MRI, held in King's College London on Dec 10th and 11th. The first meeting in 2022, at GE Research Center in Niskayuna, NY, was mainly for MAGNUS users but the scope is now expanded to all scanners and all applications. This year's speaker lineup was quite impressive, reflecting large interest from the brain imaging community, and also the concentration of top-notch researchers in UK and Europe. Early internet media posts are found here and here. The official program can be found in https://lnkd.in/gWqkMnKK. 

MAGNUS gradient coil gaining ground

An important milestone was reached in October in high-performance human head MRI. The first installation of the MAGNUS 3T research scanners outside the US happened at two places almost at the same time -- in King's College London, UK, and in West China Hospital in China. The scanner is the world's most powerful human neuroimaging machine on the path for commercialization. Now there are a total of 6 research MAGNUS systems in the world, and more are promised to come in 2026. I have so far been at all the installation sites except for in China.

Congratulations, John!

In 1962, in the old Cavendish Lab in Cambridge, UK, Brian Josephson discovered the Josephson effect and was honored by the 1973 Nobel Prize in Physics, shared with Ivar Giaever of GE Global Research (and a 3rd person, Leo Esaki). John Clarke, who went to Cambridge after Josephson, picked up the discovery and greatly advanced the effect's scientific understanding and applications. One of which was,  so it happened, to the detection of magnetic field signals in NMR in the early 2000's. That's when I learned, as his PhD student, the prominent medical imaging modality of MRI. Last week, John was announced to be one of the three physicists to share the 2025 Physics Nobel Prize, and to anyone who knows him, this is a proper, well-made decision. Not only for his scholarly achievements, but for the humble, curious, and example-setting leadership that he has displayed as a teacher, researcher, and a true academic over the decades. We need more people like him in today's world and today's academia.