Sir George Radda was born in 1936 in Hungary. He began his career as a chemistry student in Budapest. In 1956 he left Hungary and arrived in England, where he finished his first class degree at Merton College before going on to complete his PhD. Sir George completed his postdoc- toral work and a student fellowship with Melvin Calvin in Berkley, California, and then returned to England for a lectureship at Oxford in 1969, followed by a rapid rise to be Professorial Fellow. His main research interests center on the biochemical basis and cellular functions in heart disease. He became interested in using spectroscopic methods including Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) and in 1981, Sir George and his fellow colleagues published the first scientific report on the clinical application of his work. This resulted in the installation the first clinical magnetic resonance spectroscopy unit with a magnet large enough to accommodate the whole human body for NMR investigations in 1983 at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford. In recognition of his pioneering research, which opened up the study of the workings of the living body, he was given a chair in 1984 by the British Heart Foundation. From 1996 to 2003 (on secondement) he was Chief Executive of the Medical Research Council. Also, he was Chairman National Cancer Research Institute (2001- 2003). Sir George received numerous prestigious awards and hon- ours for his pioneering efforts in using spectroscopic techniques for metabolic studies, including a CBE in June 1993 and a Knighthood in June 2000. He is a Fellow of Merton College, Oxford, a Fellow of the Royal Society and is the British Heart Foundation Professor of Molecular Cardiology. He is an Honorary Member of the American Heart Association and was awarded the Citation for International Achievement. From 1996 to 2003, Sir George was Chief Executive of the Medical Research Council in the UK. He is currently Emeritus Professor of Molecular Cardiology at the University Laboratory of Physiology Cardiac Science Centre, University of Oxford and Chairman of the Singapore Bioimaging Consortium.


In recognition of his lifetime of extraordinary achievement, Sir George Radda is honoured by the International Academy of Cardiovascular Sciences with the 2006 Medal of Merit.