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'''Niels Alexander Lassen''' (December 7, 1926 – April 30, 1997) was a [[Denmark|Danish]] [[nuclear medicine physician]], [[neurology|neurologist]] and pioneer in the fields of [[neuroimaging]], [[neuropsychiatry]] and [[nuclear medicine]]. He was born and died in [[Copenhagen]].
Lassen has been called the greatest Danish brain researcher since [[Niels Steensen]].<ref name=RADK>{{cite report|author1-last=Hultborn|author1-first=Hans R.A.|title=Annual Report 1997-1998|chapter=Niels Alexander Lassen, 7. december 1927 - 30. april 1997|page=205|year=1999|publisher=[[Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters]]|quote= Han er blevet betegnet som den størstedanske hjerneforsker siden Nicolaus Steno|chapter-url=https://www.royalacademy.dk/Publications/Low/2043_.pdf}}</ref>
== Career ==
His father, H. C. A. Lassen, was professor at the [[University of Copenhagen]], and Niels Lassen graduated as medical doctor from the same university in 1951. With his colleague Ole Munck he began in the 1950s to use [[radioactive isotopes]] for the measurement of the blood circulation in the brain, and in the beginning of the 1960s he together with {{ill|David H. Ingvar|sv}} from [[University of Lund]] began the development of methods for ''regional'' measurements on the brain with krypton-85 and xenon-133 isotopes.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Ingvar|first1=David H.|author-link1=:sv:David H. Ingvar|last2=Lassen|first2=Niels A.|author-link2=Niels A. Lassen|title=Quantitative determination of regional cerebral blood-flow in man|journal=[[The Lancet]]|year=1961|volume=278|issue=7206|pages=806–807|url=http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736%2861%2991092-3/fulltext|doi=10.1016/s0140-6736(61)91092-3}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last1=Lassen|first1=Niels A.|last2=Ingvar|first2=David H.|author-link2=:sv:David H. Ingvar|year=1972| title=Radioisotopic assessment of regional cerebral blood flow|journal=Progress in Nuclear Medicine|volume=1|pages=376–409|pmid=4567822}}</ref> These efforts were summarized in a ''[[Scientific American]]'' article in 1978.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Lassen|first1=Niels A.|author-link1=Niels A. Lassen|last2=Ingvar|first2=David H.|author-link2=:sv:David H. Ingvar|last3=Skinhøj|first3=Erik|author-link3=:da:Erik Skinhøj|title=Brain Function and Blood Flow| journal=[[Scientific American]]|volume=239|issue=4|pages=62–71|date=October 1978|doi=10.1038/scientificamerican1078-62|pmid=705327|bibcode=1978SciAm.239d..62L }}</ref>
He was employed at [[Bispebjerg Hospital]] in 1958 to 1996. From 1963 he established and lead the department of [[Clinical Physiology]]. He wrote 710 scientific publications in the periode 1954-2000+.
He was married to [[Edda Sveinsdottir]] who as a [[computer scientist]] helped with the development of the (at that time) advanced computer technology for image construction of the regional brain measurements.
==The Niels Lassen Award==
There is a ''Niels Lassen Award''<ref>[http://iscbfm.org/About-us/Awards.aspx The Niels Lassen Award]</ref> presented by the International Society for Cerebral Blood Flow and Metabolism (ISCBFM). ((The Danish medical doctor, brain researcher and "science entertainer" Peter Lund Madsen was a student of Niels A. Lassen, and Peter Lund Madsen received the Niels A. Lassen Prize in 2002.<ref>{{Cite journal | url = http://www.ugeskriftet.dk/LF/UFL/2003/04/pdf/VP41330.pdf | title = Niels A. Lassen Prisen 2002 | journal = [[Ugeskrift for Læger]] | volume = 165 | issue = 4 | pages = 354 | year = 2003 | url-status = dead | archiveurl = https://web.archive.org/web/20110718115741/http://www.ugeskriftet.dk/LF/UFL/2003/04/pdf/VP41330.pdf | archivedate = 2011-07-18 }}</ref>))
Previous recipients have included :
* 1999 - Matthias Endres, Mass. General Hospital, [[Harvard University]], [[Boston]], USA and the Exp. Neurology, Charite, [[Humboldt University]], [[Berlin]], Germany
* 2001 - Sylvain Doré, Departments of Anesthesiology/Critical Care Medicine and Neuroscience, [[Johns Hopkins School of Medicine]], [[Baltimore]], Maryland, USA
* 2003 - Fahmeed Hyder, Department of Diagnostic Radiology, [[Yale University]], [[New Haven]], CT, USA
* 2005 - Kirsten Caesar, Department of Medical Physiology, [[Copenhagen University]], [[Copenhagen]], Denmark
* 2007 - Kazuhiko Hayashi, [[Osaka University]] Graduate School of Medicine, [[Suita]], [[Osaka]], Japan
* 2009 - Alyson A. Miller, [[Monash University]], [[Melbourne]], Australia
* 2011 - Virginia Newcombe, [[University of Cambridge]], [[Cambridge, UK]]
* 2013 - Peiying Li, [[Fudan University]], [[Shanghai]], China
* 2015 - Sjoerd Finnema, [[Yale University]], [[New Haven]], CT, USA
Lassen himself received the [[Novo Nordisk]] Prize in 1968, from the [[Novo Nordisk Foundation]].<ref>[http://www.novonordiskfonden.dk/english/index.php?idnr=16 The Novo Nordisk Prize]</ref> and was the first recipient of the inaugural International Society for Cerebral Blood Flow and Metabolism (ISCBFM) Lifetime Achievement Award in 1997.<ref>[http://iscbfm.org/About-us/Awards.aspx The Lifetime Achievement Award]</ref>
== References ==
{{reflist}}
== Bibliography ==
* Niels A. Lassen, William A. Perl, ''Tracer kinetic methods in medical physiology'', [[Raven (publisher)|Raven]], [[New York City]], 1979. {{ISBN|0-89004-114-8}}.
* [[Olaf B. Paulson]], "Niels A. Lassen (1926-1997)", In ''Festskrift. Dansk Neurologisk Selskab 1900-2000'', Jørgen Therkelsen(editor), Lægeforeningens forlag, Copenhagen, 2000.
* {{Cite journal
|author1=Lars Friberg |author2=Albert Gjedde | title = In memoriam: Niels A. Lassen, 7 December 1926 - 30 April 1997
| journal = European Journal of Nuclear Medicine
| volume = 24
| issue = 9
| pages = 1083&ndash;1084
|date=September 1997
| doi = 10.1007/BF01254237
|s2cid=6330282 | doi-access = free
}}
* {{Cite journal
| author = Olaf B. Paulson
| title = Niels A. Lassen, M.D., Ph.D.: 1926–1997
| journal = [[Journal of Cerebral Blood Flow & Metabolism]]
| volume = 17
| issue = 10
| year = 1997
| doi = 10.1097/00004647-199710000-00001
| pages = 1005–1006
| author-link = Olaf B. Paulson
| doi-access = free
}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lassen, Niels Alexander}}
[[Category:1926 births]]
[[Category:1997 deaths]]
[[Category:Danish neurologists]]
[[Category:Academic awards]]
[[Category:20th-century Danish physicians]]