MRI creator Paul C. Lauterbur dead at 77

URBANA, Ill., March 28 (UPI) -- Nobel Prize winner Paul C. Lauterbur, who helped develop magnetic resonance imaging, has died at 77 of kidney disease in Urbana, Ill.

Lauterbur worked at the University of Illinois in Champaign, Ill., for 22 years. He died Tuesday, The New York Times reported.

His work with MRIs has helped revolutionize medicine, allowing for a good look inside the human body without cutting it open. It helps avoid unnecessary surgery and cuts out the radiation of X-rays.

"Paul's influence is felt around the world every day, every time an MRI saves the life of a daughter or a son, a mother or a father," said Richard Herman, chancellor of the Urbana-Champaign campus of the University of Illinois.

Lauterbur is survived by his wife, Joan Dawson, and three children -- Daniel Lauterbur, Sharyn Lauterbur-DiGeronimo and Elise Lauterbur.