Book excerpt: In 1971 Dr. Paul C. Lauterbur pioneered spatial information encoding principles that made image formation possible by using magnetic resonance signals. Now Lauterbur, "father of the MRI", and Dr. Zhi-Pei Liang have co-authored the first engineering textbook on magnetic resonance imaging. This long-awaited, definitive text will help undergraduate and graduate students of biomedical engineering, biomedical imaging scientists, radiologists, and electrical engineers gain an in-depth understanding of MRI principles. The authors use a signal processing approach to describe the fundamentals of magnetic resonance imaging. You will find a clear and rigorous discussion of these carefully selected essential topics: Mathematical fundamentals Signal generation and detection principles Signal characteristics Signal localization principles Image reconstruction techniques Image contrast mechanisms Image resolution, noise, and artifacts Fast-scan imaging Constrained reconstruction Complete with a comprehensive set of examples and homework problems, Principles of Magnetic Resonance Imaging is the must-read book to improve your knowledge of this revolutionary technique.