Professor Peter Wells CBE FRS FREng FMedSci FLSW MAE

Professor Peter Wells CBE FRS FREng FMedSci FLSW MAE is shortlisted for his pioneering development of ultrasound in medical diagnosis and surgery.

He is a distinguished Research Professor at the Institute of Medical Engineering & Medical Physics at Cardiff University and a Fellow of the Royal Society and the Royal Academy of Engineering. Professor Wells originally trained as an Electrical Engineer but then turned his attention to medicine and retrained in Bristol, getting new qualifications in Medical Physics and Zoology. In 1971, he was appointed Professor of Medical Physics at the Welsh National School of Medicine. He went on to become Chief Physicist with the United Bristol Hospitals NHS Trust and Chair of Physics and Engineering in Medicine at Bristol University before returning to Cardiff.

Over the past 40 years, Professor Wells has been the originator and developer of a wide range of instrumentation in ultrasonic surgery, ultrasonic diagnosis, tumour detection and ultrasonic power measurement including the 2-dimensional articulated-arm ultrasonic general purpose scanner and the water-immersion ultrasonic breast scanner. He has also studied the hazards of human exposure to ultrasound and has put together safety guidelines for the prudent use of ultrasound instrumentation. Professor Wells is helping to develop a new type of CT scanning which is likely to be used for ultrasonic breast screening and he is also in the early states of trying to develop a much faster form of ultrasound scanning. Last year, he was recognised for his work by the Royal Academy of Engineering.