In the year 1991 the 1st International Conference on Magnetic Resonance Microscopy (ICMRM) has been taken place in Heidelberg, Germany. Based on the contributions to this meeting the book Magnetic Resonance Microscopy: Methods and Applications in Materials Science, Agriculture and Biomedicine, VCH Wienheim, 1992, edited by Bernhard Blümich and Winfried Kuhn, provided an up-to-date reference on the subject of non-medical imaging. The next ICMRM meetings, now called Heidelberg Conference, were in 1993 (Heidelberg), 1995 (Wuerzburg).
The 4th ICMRM moved out to Albuquerque, New Mexico. By then it was felt that un update of the Microscopy Book was needed. During this time the field has advanced significantly, and several new techniques and hardware developments were introduced as well as interesting new (non-medical) applications covering such diverse areas as polymer and elastomer characterization, analysis of construction materials and material flow, various topics in biomedicine, foods and plant studies. The second book was titled: Spatially Resolved Magnetic Resonance: Methods, Materials, Medicine, Biology, Rheology, Geology, Ecology, Hardware, and edited by P. Bluemler, B. Bluemich, R. Botto and E. Fukushima (Wiley-VCH, 1998).
The Heidelberg Conference continued with very successful meetings: in 1999 the meeting was back in Heidelberg (chair B. Hull), moved out to Nottingham in 2001 (chairs R. Bowtell, P. McDonald), Snowbird, Utah, in 2003 (chairs D. Aylion, R. Botto) and Itsonomiya, Japan, in 2005 (chairs Y. Seo, K. Kose).
The phenomenon of spatially resolved Nuclear Magnetic Resonance, with or without imaging, has proven an essential tool in physics, it has revolutionized chemistry and biochemistry, it has made astonishing contributions to medicine, and is now making an impact in biology, biosciences, geophysics, chemical engineering, and food technology. It is even finding applications in new security technologies and in testing fundamental ideas concerning quantum computing. But the story of Magnetic Resonance is much more than the application of a well-established method to new areas of science. The technique itself continues to evolve. Magnetic Resonance has now garnered 6 Nobel prizes, the last one in 2003 (Paul Lauterbur and Sir Peter Mansfield). It is really quite extraordinary that such accolades are still being given to new developments in the methodology.
The phenomenon of spatially resolved Nuclear Magnetic Resonance, with or without imaging, has proven an essential tool in physics, it has revolutionized chemistry and biochemistry, it has made astonishing contributions to medicine, and is now making an impact in biology, biosciences, geophysics, chemical engineering, and food technology. It is even finding applications in new security technologies and in testing fundamental ideas concerning quantum computing. But the story of Magnetic Resonance is much more than the application of a well-established method to new areas of science. The technique itself continues to evolve. Magnetic Resonance has now garnered 6 Nobel prizes, the last one in 2003 (Paul Lauterbur and Sir Peter Mansfield). It is really quite extraordinary that such accolades are still being given to new developments in the methodology.
The 9th ICMRM meeting in Aachen will be held together with the 7th Colloquium on Mobile NMR (CMMR7). As such, it provides the international platform where (NMR, EPR, and MRI) scientists with a largely non-medical background meet to discuss advances in the diverse fields of Magnetic Resonance Microscopy and mobile NMR and MRI. It will be followed up by a new update of the Spatially Resolved Magnetic Resonance book, presenting the ongoing rapid developments of this field of research and its applications.