Magnetic Resonance: From Beginnings in Physics to Applications in Medicine, Biology and Materials

Since its first experimental confirmation more than 80 years ago, research in magnetic resonance shifted from fundamental physics to physical chemistry and later on to applications in medicine, biology and material sciences. This makes magnetic resonance one of the prime examples that fundamental research can lead to transformative technologies in other fields that were not at all envisioned at the time of the first experiments. 

In my talk I will focus on the field of solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR). To achieve high spectral resolution, rapid sample rotation about an axis inclined by 54.7° with respect to the static magnetic field is required. Applying at the same time radio-frequency pulses, leads to a Hamiltonian with multiple time dependencies that can be used to tailor different effective Hamiltonians during different time periods of the experiment. This allows the implementation of a wide variety of experiments to characterize structure and dynamics of molecules. I will show state-of-the-art examples what can be done suing solid-state NMR in biological and materials applications. I will  show challenges in instrumentation and theoretical understanding of solid-state NMR that are important for further development of the method.