Murray Eden facts for kids

Murray Eden (born August 17, 1920 – died August 9, 2020) was an American physical chemist and a professor of Electrical Engineering. He worked at important places like MIT and the NIH. He also taught at many universities.

Murray Eden was a pioneer in a field called biomedical engineering and imaging. This means he was one of the first people to do important work in using engineering to solve problems in medicine and health, especially with medical images. He was also in charge of the Biomedical Engineering and Physical Science Program at the NIH. The NIH even said that Dr. Murray Eden "elevated" (which means improved and made more important) their program.

Murray Eden was born in Brooklyn on August 17, 1920. His parents were immigrants from Russia. His father was a leader in Jewish education in New York City. During Murray's childhood, his family faced tough times because of a big economic downturn called the Depression and also because of unfair treatment against Jewish people before World War II.

He finished Townsend Harris High School in Manhattan when he was only 14 years old, in 1935. He then went to City College of New York and graduated in 1939. In 1940, he moved to Washington D.C. and studied chemistry. He earned his Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of Maryland in 1951.

Murray Eden's Career

During World War II, around 1941, Murray Eden worked for the government at the Princeton facility. He was part of the Manhattan Project, which was a secret project to create the atomic bomb. He helped produce a special type of uranium called uranium-235. He worked alongside other smart people, including a famous scientist named Dick Feynman.

Between 1949 and 1953, Murray worked at the National Cancer Institute, which is a part of the NIH that focuses on cancer research.

Innovations in Technology

From 1959 to 1979, Murray Eden did amazing work in electrical engineering. He worked at MIT, Harvard Medical School, the NIH, and the World Health Organization. He made his own important discoveries in computerized tomography, which is a way to create detailed images of the inside of the body. He also worked on pattern recognition, which is about teaching computers to recognize patterns, and on processing images and analyzing handwriting. He did this work from the early 1960s to 1976.

Murray Eden led the NIH's Biomedical Engineering and Instrumentation Program (BEIP) starting in 1979. He retired from this program in 1994.

He also helped the World Health Organization, which is a global health agency. He was an expert advisor on how to develop new research and technologies for the organization's leader.

Teaching and Consulting

Murray Eden was also a lecturer and visiting professor at many universities. These included Harvard University, American University, Boston University Law School, Johns Hopkins University, and a university in Switzerland called the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne.

Murray Eden was also a consultant on the team that created the Universal Product Code barcode. This is the barcode you see on almost everything you buy in a store! He was the chairman of a group of scientists at MIT. He helped choose a symbol that would work well even as technology changed quickly. He picked the font for the barcode and had the smart idea to add numbers to the bottom. This was a backup plan, so if the barcode scanner didn't work, someone could still type in the numbers.

Murray Eden's Views

Murray Eden was an activist from a young age, meaning he actively worked for causes he believed in. This included working for peace. He also had his own thoughts on Darwinism, which is the theory of evolution. He found the idea of "evolution" to be "highly implausible," meaning he thought it was very unlikely.

Awards and Recognition

In 1993, Murray Eden received the "Directors award" from the NIH's Biomedical Engineering and Instrumentation Program (BEIP).

In 1983, he was given a medal from the WHO's Medical Society. He received this award for his important work as an expert advisor on research and development for the WHO's Director-General.

Personal Life

In 1945, Murray Eden married Sara Baker. Sara was also an expert advisor and was very active in politics and her community. She passed away on September 15, 1995, at the age of 73.

Death

Murray Eden died on August 9, 2020, in Tucson, Arizona. He was almost 100 years old. He was survived by his brother, Dr. Alvin Eden, five children, and seven grandchildren.