Allan McLeod Cormack

On 6 January 1950 Allan M. Cormack married Barbara Jeanne Seavey. The couple had three children – daughters, Margaret Cormack, Jean Cormack and a son, Robert Cormack.

A South African citizen by birth, he became a Naturalized US Citizen in 1966.

He was suffering from cancer and died on 7 May 1998 at Massachusetts, USA. He was 74 years old at the time of his death.

Allan McLeod Cormack was born on 23 February 1924 at Johannesburg in South Africa. His father, George Cormack, was an engineer and mother, Amelia MacLeod Cormack, worked as a teacher. He had two older siblings.

In 1936, following his father’s death he along with his family shifted to Cape Town. He attended the Rondebosch Boys' High School in Cape Town.

Apart from studies at school, he was interested in playing tennis, acting and debating. He was influenced by the books of Sir Arthur Eddington and Sir James Jeans and grew interested in astronomy.

He later got enrolled at the University of Cape Town to study Electrical Engineering. However, a few years later he shifted to studying physics. In 1944 he graduated with a B.Sc. in physics and the following year with a postgraduate degree M.Sc. in crystallography from the University of Cape Town.

Upon completing his post graduate studies, he joined St. John's College in Cambridge as research student. He worked at the Cavendish Laboratory under Prof. Otto Frisch, studying radioactive isotope Helium-6.

In 1950, he shifted to Cape Town to join the University of Cape Town as a lecturer in the physics department. In Cape Town there were very few nuclear physicists and he was mentored by the head of the physics department Professor R. W. James, which enabled him to gain insights and later publish papers on the subject.

Between 1956 and 1957, he spent a sabbatical at the Harvard cyclotron with professors Norman Ransey and Richard Wilson performing experiments on nucleon-nucleon scattering. During this leave, he was offered a position of professor at the Tufts University which he accepted in 1957.

In the early years of the 1960’s Allan M Cormack explained the method of calculating details of flat section of soft tissues by the measurements of the reduced strength of X Rays that pass through various angles.

He thereby presented the mathematical technique for the computerized axial tomography (CAT) scan. The CAT scan was utilized to provide a clear map of the tissues within the cross section of the body by utilizing data captured by electronic detectors and X-Ray that are rotated around the body.

Allan M. Cormack was a physicist whose primary areas of interest in research were nuclear and particle physics. He was noted for his work related to the development of the diagnostic technique computerized axial tomography.