Final Programme

Dignitaries
Robert E. Steiner
London/UK
was born in 1918 in Prague, then Austria. He began
his medical studies at the University of Vienna in
1935. In 1938 he left for Dublin in Ireland where
he completed his studies at the national University
College and graduated in 1941. He started his
medical career in the United Kingdom Emergency
Medical Services where he served from 1941
to 1945. His radiological training began in the
United Sheffield Hospitals in 1944 and continued
until 1950, when he finished as a junior registrar
and tutor in diagnostic radiology. From 1950 to
1983 he worked in the Department of Diagnostic
Radiology at Hammersmith Hospital, London, first
as deputy Director and then as Director when he
was appointed the first Professor of Diagnostic
Radiology of the University of London at the Royal
Postgraduate Medical School at Hammersmith
Hospital. He retired in 1983, but continued to work
part time in the MRI unit now named after him. Dr.
Steiner is now Emeritus Professor of Diagnostic
Radiology at the University of London.
Dr. Steiner held distinguished offices in radiological
societies in the UK and abroad; he was President
of the British Institute of Radiology (1972-1973),
President of the Royal College of Radiologists (1977-
1980), and President of the Fleischner Society
(1974-1975), to name some. He is an Honorary
Fellow of many national societies in Europe, America,
East Asia and Australia and has also attained many
distinctions. Amongst those are Commander of the
British Empire from the UK government; the Gold
Medal of the Royal College of Radiologists; the
Barclay Medal of the British Institute of Radiology;
the Rajewsky Medal of the European Association
of Radiology; and he is an Honorary Fellow of
radiological societies throughout the world. He has
also given a large number of named lectures such as
the Olle Olsen lecture in Lund/SE, the Chamberlain
lecture in Philadelphia/US, the Fleischner lecture in
Boston/US, the Sosman lecture in Boston/US, and
the Schinz lecture in Bern/CH.
Professor Steiner’s research interests were largely
in the cardiovascular field, the pulmonary circulation
and pulmonary diseases. In all these areas he
worked very closely with his clinical colleagues. Since
1979 he was involved with the development of the
clinical application of Magnetic Resonance Imaging
as a part-time member of a team supported by the
Medical Research Council, the University of London,
and the British Department of Health and Industry.
Publications number over 250, with the main emphasis
on the pulmonary and cardiovascular systems, and
Magnetic Resonance Imaging. Professor Steiner
has been editor of 4 editions of Recent Advances
in Radiology and Imaging (Churchill Livingstone) and
of Clinical disorders of the pulmonary circulation
(Churchill Livingstone); he was editor of the British
Journal of Radiology from 1965 to 1970, and has
written chapters in a number of textbooks.
For his numerous influential contributions to the
science of radiology, particularly in MRI and in
cardiovascular and pulmonary diseases, Dr. Robert
E. Steiner is awarded the Gold Medal of the European
Congress of Radiology and the European Association
of Radiology.
16 European Society of Radiology