Raymond Damadian

Raymond Damadian

Raymond Vahan Damadian was Born::March 16, 1936 in Melville, New York. He entered the University of Wisconsin in at 16, earning his BS in mathematics in 1956. He then earned his MD from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in 1960. After one year's residency at Kings County Hospital in New York, he served as a Fellow first in Nephrology at the Washington University School of Medicine in St Louis, then in Biophysics at Harvard. He also studied Physiological Chemistry at the School of Aerospace Medicine. Finally, Dr Damadian joined the faculty of the State University of New York, becoming the associate professor of biophysics and internal medicine.

Dr Damadian is a strong Christian, and firm believer in a biblical young Earth creation. He testified his faith, support for young Earth creationism, and the fact that creationists are genuine scientists in a video clip shown in the February 9, 2014 debate between Ken Ham and Bill Nye. In an interview with Creation magazine, Damadian said that:

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acceptance of the unqualified Word of God ‘has been the foundation for Western civilization since the printing of the Gutenberg Bible in the fifteenth century. [1]

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Damadian's US Patent filed 17 March 1972.

Experimentation With Tumors

In 1969, Dr Damadian began experimenting with a nuclear magnetic resonance spectrometer. He discovered that tumors responded differently to the machine than did normal, healthy tissue. In 1971 he published his findings in the journal Science, and began working on a machine large enough to scan a human body. Unfortunately, so did many of his competitors. Six exhausting years later, Dr Damadian’s team made the first successful human scan. Over the next years, Dr Damadian filed several lawsuits against international companies who were implementing his patented ideas for their own profit; some he won, others he lost.

In 1997, the United States Supreme Court affirmed that Damadian’s research was the basis for the modern Magnetic Resonance Imaging machine (MRI). However, the Nobel Prize was awarded to Paul Lauterbur and Sir Peter Mansfield in 2003 for their later work on the MRI. Many of Damadian's supporters feel that he was ignored because of his stance as a young earth creationist. An admission of this potential act of discrimination can be found in the December 2003 issue of Smithsonian Magazine[2];

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But it is difficult not to at least consider another explanation: that scientists on the assembly or in other positions of influence could not abide Damadian’s staunch support for "creationist science." Damadian is a firm believer in a literal translation of the Bible: he has no doubt that the earth was created by God during a six-day stretch about 6,000 years ago. Damadian has also served as a technical adviser to the Institute for Creation Research, which rejects the standard model of evolution."The non-biblical account would have us believe that all life originated from a single common ancestor—a slime mold—and give or take a billion years, we’re expected to believe that the descendants of this slime mold climbed out of the ocean and stood up and started giving lectures," Damadian says. "Do the math on that. The sheer statistics of that violate any sense of reality."

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Skeptics, on the otherhand, argue that the award was for Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Imaging, an aspect Damadian did not develop (though without his previous research, there would be no way to get an image).

Publications

• Tumor Detection by Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Science, 19 March 1971, Volume 171
• Actin-like Proteins from Escherichia coli: Concept of Cytotonus as the Missing Link Between Cell Metabolism and the Biological Ion-exchange Resin Journal of Bacteriology, Jan 1976, Volume 125 Number 1
• Human Tumors Detected by Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, Volume 71, Number 4

References

Creationist References

• The World's Greatest Creation Scientists From Y1K to Y2K Part V: The Resurrection of Creation Science; c. 2000 David F. Coppedge, Master Plan Productions
• Looking Right Through You by Bob Chuvala, Today's Christian 35(1):62, January/February 1997
• Raymond V. Damadian, M.D. Institute for Creation Research Technical Advisory Board
  • List of publications by ICR
• Super-scientist slams society’s spiritual sickness! Creation 16(3):35–37 June 1994
• The not-so-Nobel decision by Carl Wieland Creation 26(4):40–42 September 2004
• Dr Damadian’s vital contribution to MRI: Nobel prize controversy returns by Jonathan Sarfati, refuting a critic, 21–22 October 2006.

Secular References

• Prize Fight Smithsonian Magazine. December 2003. By Rick Weiss
• Who Made America: Raymond Damadian by PBS
• Raymond V. Damadian, M.D. Franklin Institute - 2004 Bower Award for Business Leadership
• Why Dr. Damadian's Discovery is the Key to All Magnetic Resonance Imaging FONAR
• Raymond Damadian Wikipedia