Contributions to computed tomography

Boone and McCollough reply: We appreciate and agree with the comments from Steven Greenberg and Kenneth Hanson regarding our article, “Computed tomography turns 50 .” While writing it, we realized that so many people were involved in the development of modern computed tomography (CT), starting with Johann Radon in 1917, that we couldn’t mention them all in our limited space. So we chose to mention only the few who were intricately involved early on in the clinical translation of CT—which is what the 50th anniversary celebrated. Many others could be mentioned for their contributions to CT technology, of course, and after our article was published, we received some wonderful anecdotes from those who were involved in the early days of CT.

We also learned that another, more comprehensive 50-year tribute ¹ to CT was published around the same time as our Physics Today article. In summary, we concur with Greenberg’s and Hanson’s recommendations that many others deserve credit for CT.