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-day 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 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 at that time. I nevertheless pushed for the research, on habenular imaging, on a Korean grant, which was eventually published in 2020 (https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-75733-y) with John a co-author. After I came back to GE, I published a long overdue paper on the general theory of fingerprint coil design, for which I had John as the second and only other author. When it was published in Journal of Applied Physics in 2023, and knowing a bit about his health concerns, I wondered if this may be his last appearance in a research paper as an author. Unfortunately that seems to be the case. Adieu John! Thank you! I was honored to have met you!