British electrical engineer and joint winner of the Nobel Prize for his part in developing the diagnostic technique of computerised axial tomography (CAT).

Hounsfield developed a keen interest in mechanical and electrical gadgets while growing up on his father's farm. During the Second World War he worked as a radar specialist for the Royal Air Force. In 1951 he joined Electric and Musical Industries (EMI). He led the team that built the first all-transistor computer in Britain, the EMIDEC 1100, in 1958-59.

In 1967 Hounsfield had the idea which eventually became the CAT technique. He envisaged extending the capability of a computer so that it could interpret X-ray signals sent by a scanning machine to form a two-dimensional image of a complex object such as a human head. He built a prototype scanner for the human head and then one for the body. Computers soon developed the requisite processing power and in 1972 Hounsfield produced the first detailed images of cross-sections of the human body, allowing doctors to see inside their patients as never before. In 1979 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for his work.