astronomy

Mark Henkelman

Mark Henkelman is a astronomy topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Mark Henkelman rather than just read about it. In short: R. Mark Henkelman was a Canadian biophysics researcher in the field of medical imaging, who was appointed as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada (2005) and the Order of Canada (2019) in recognition of his pioneering contributions to the field of magnetic resonance imaging.

Key takeaways

Mark Henkelman belongs to astronomy; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Mark Henkelman to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Mark Henkelman from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

R. Mark Henkelman was a Canadian biophysics researcher in the field of medical imaging, who was appointed as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada (2005) and the Order of Canada (2019) in recognition of his pioneering contributions to the field of magnetic resonance imaging. He died on June 28, 2024.

Research career Henkelman obtained a Master of Science degree in theoretical physics at McMaster University, followed by a PhD exploring the use of electron microscopy, under the supervision of Peter Ottensmeyer, at the University of Toronto. The Ontario provincial government granted the Princess Margaret Hospital (now known as the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre) funding to purchase the first magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanner in Canada in 1982, making Henkelman one of the first to use and engage in MRI research in Canada, where he studied MRI image artifacts and developed image-guided surgery techniques, and used MRI in disease settings, such as cancer and neurosurgery. Henkelman then served as the vice-president of research at the Sunnybrook Health Science Centre before returning to the laboratory, and later in 2001, left to found a mouse imaging centre. Henkelman was the director of the Toronto Centre for Phenogenomics' (TCP) Mouse Imaging Centre (MICe), where MICe uses digital imaging technologies to characterize mouse models of different human diseases. For example, Henkelman supervised then postdoctoral fellow, Jacob Ellegood (now a research associate at MICe), who partnered with Jason P. Lerch (an associate professor at the University of Toronto, and a MICe principal investigator), to scan mice with magnetic resonance imaging, specifically those with Autism Spectrum Disorder. Henkelman was appointed a Canada Research Chair in Imaging Technologies in Human Diseases and Preclinical Model Cluster in 2008. He was a professor emeritus at the University of Toronto's Department of Medical Biophysics, and a senior scientist emeritus at The Hospital for Sick Children. Henkelman's publications has been cited over 38,000 times, and has an h-index and i10-index of 98 and 327 respectively. He has received the Robert L. Noble Prize in 2008, the Izaak Walton Killam Memorial Prize in 2010, the Gold Medal of the International Society of Magnetic Resonance in Medicine in 1998, and was appointed a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in 2005, and an Officer of the Order of Canada in 2019.

Selected bibliography Singh, Sheila K., Cynthia Hawkins, Ian D. Clarke, Jeremy A. Squire, Jane Bayani, Takuichiro Hide, R. Mark Henkelman, Michael D. Cusimano, and Peter B. Dirks. "Identification of human brain tumour initiating cells." Nature 432, no. 7015 (2004): 396. Stanisz, Greg J., Ewa E. Odrobina, Joseph Pun, Michael Escaravage, Simon J. Graham, Michael J. Bronskill, and R. Mark Henkelman. "T1, T2 relaxation and magnetization transfer in tissue at 3T." Magnetic Resonance in Medicine: An Official Journal of the International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine 54, no. 3 (2005): 507-512. Henkelman, R. Mark. "Measurement of signal intensities in the presence of noise in MR images." Medical Physics 12, no. 2 (1985): 232-233. Henkelman, R. M., G. J. Stanisz, and S. J. Graham. "Magnetization transfer in MRI: a review." NMR in Biomedicine: An International Journal Devoted to the Development and Application of Magnetic Resonance In Vivo 14, no. 2 (2001): 57-64. Henkelman, R. Mark, Xuemei Huang, Qing‐San Xiang, G. J. Stanisz, Scott D. Swanson, and Michael J. Bronskill. "Quantitative interpretation of magnetization transfer." Magnetic resonance in medicine 29, no. 6 (1993): 759-766.

See also List of companions of the Order of Canada Robert L. Noble Prize Izaak Walton Killam Memorial Prize

References

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Mark Henkelman

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Mark Henkelman claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In astronomy, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Mark Henkelman before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Mark Henkelman ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Mark Henkelman

In research: Mark Henkelman appears in astronomy research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Mark Henkelman in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Mark Henkelman is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Academic staff of the University of Toronto Faculty of Medicine, Canadian biophysicists, Fellows of the Royal Society of Canada, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Mark Henkelman outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Mark Henkelman in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Mark Henkelman means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Mark Henkelman out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Mark Henkelman in simple terms?

Why does Mark Henkelman matter?

Because it connects several astronomy ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Mark Henkelman?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Mark Henkelman.