The Order of Mapungubwe in Gold

Allan M. Cormack (1924 - 1998) Awarded for:

Outstanding achievements as a scientist and for co-inventing the CT-scan.

Profile of Allan M. Cormack

Professor Allan Cormack is a South African. Born in Johannesburg in 1924, he completed his Bachelor and Masters degrees at the University of Cape Town (UCT) and then went to St John’s College, Cambridge as a research student.

In 1950, he returned to UCT as a lecturer and in 1956 he became interested in a scientific phenomenon on which he later collaborated and developed into the CT-scan, commonly known as the cat-scan.

Because his main interest was in nuclear and particle physics he did his early research into phenomenon part time and only when time permitted. In 1964 he published the results of his work with little response but very soon the scientific establishment became aware of the true significance of his research and from 1970 he devoted most of his time to further research into the CT-scan.

He won the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1979 for co-inventing the CT-scan.