French pioneer of Diffusion MRI to receive top Japanese scientific award

The Honda Foundation, a public-interest incorporated foundation created by Honda Motor's founder Soichiro Honda and his younger brother Benjiro Honda and currently headed by Hiroto Ishida, is pleased to announce the Honda Prize 2012 will be awarded to

Dr. Denis Le Bihan has been chosen as the recipient of  Japan's first international science and technology award, institiuted in 1980, the Honda prize, for his pioneering role in establishing 'diffusion magnetic resonance imaging (diffusion MRI) as a universal method to study and diagnose acute stroke and other neurological disorders.

The founding director of France's NeuroSpin for Ultrahigh Field MRI, Dr. Le Bihan also teaches at Kyoto University Graduate School of Medicine's Human Brain Research Center. Dr. Le Bihan is the 33rd laureate of the Honda Prize, recognised as one of the most important awards in the world by the International Congress of Distinguished Awards.

The award is administered by the Honda Foundation, founded by Honda Motor's founder Soichiro Honda and his younger brother Benjiro Honda.

Dr Denis Le Bihan is a pioneer of the Diffusion MRI concept from theorisation of water diffusion measurement by MRI to its application in clinical practice, and his innovative imaging techniques have rapidly spread throughout the world.

He studied NMR imaging intensively and suggested that diffusional movements of water and other molecules inside the body could be used to visualize microscopic structure and function of the organs and tissues being observed with MRI. Dr. Le Bihan devised the Diffusion MRI method for clinical practice by noninvasively visualising behaviour of water diffusion inside the brain when water molecules move in a strong magnetic field gradient.