Over the years, Charles Springer, Ph.D., and co-workers have: introduced frequency shift reagents for the tissue 23Na magnetic resonance (MR), systematized tissue 23Na quadrupolar effects, systematized in vivoMR effects of bulk magnetic susceptibility (the bases of: fMRI, myocellular -1H2C- frequency splitting, most tissue 1H2O phase shifts, etc.), introduced relaxographic imaging (natural, unsupervised segmentation), and introduced the MR shutter-speed concept. The latter is a correction and generalization of the colloquially used "NMR time-scale" term. The shutter-speed has proven to be important in improving the mathematical modeling of MRI pharmacokinetics – especially of (Dynamic-Contrast-Enhanced) DCE-MRI data. An early success of shutter-speed DCE-MRI pharmacokinetic modeling has been the realization of breast cancer screening with essentially perfect specificity. This solves the very serious high false positive rate problem of mammographic screening. Also, shutter-speed corrections are usually necessary in order for DCE-MRI data to be used for accurate molecular imaging of water. 

Dr. Springer received his B.S. and Ph.D. in chemistry from St. Louis University and the Ohio State University, respectively. He was a postdoctoral associate in the Aerospace Research Laboratory at the Wright‑Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio. He was a member of the Stony Brook Chemistry faculty for 35 years, and the Brookhaven National Laboratory Chemistry faculty for the last ten of those. 

Dr. Springer served as director of the Advanced Imaging Research Center for six years, and is a member of the OHSU Physiology and Pharmacology and Biomedical Engineering faculties. Springer has held visiting faculty appointments at CalTech and Harvard Medical School. He has received the U.S. Air Force Research and Development Award, the Brookhaven National Laboratory Science and Technology Award, is a Fellow of the International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine (ISMRM), and chaired the In VivoMagnetic Resonance Gordon Research Conference. Dr. Springer has served on the ISMRM Board of Trustees and serves on the Editorial Boards of NMR in Biomedicine and Contrast Media and Molecular Imaging.