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In memoriam Sir George Charles Radda

By Judit Szabados-Dőtsch
On September 13, 2024, the world-famous Hungarian-born British biochemist Sir George Charles Radda passed away at the age of 88. His numerous accolades include the Hungarian Corvin Chain, the Buchanan Medal of The Royal Society, and the Order of the British Empire. He was affiliated with Semmelweis University in many ways. In 2004 he was awarded an honorary doctorate and in 2011 he was the second recipient of the Semmelweis Budapest Award, the most prestigious distinction of our university. He delivered several lectures at the university, most recently in 2017 on the metabolic basis of diseases.

He was actively involved in the establishment of the György Békésy Research Center at the Department of Biophysics and Radiation Biology in 2018.

He pioneered the application of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) to the human body. He is thus credited with the development of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). He was a former chairman of the UK National Cancer Research Institute in London in the early 2000s and chairman of the Biomedical Research Council at the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) in Singapore from 2008-2016. He played a significant role in promoting scientific cooperation and exchange between Singapore and Hungary. He was the author of over 800 publications. His autobiography My Life in Science was published in 2020 and is available in our university repository.

Sir George Radda’s credo was “A whole new way of thinking is needed to get different professions not just working together but thinking together to solve humanity’s biggest problems.”

May he rest in peace.

Dr. Miklós Kellermayer, Department of Biophysics and Radiation Biology