Cormack, Allan MacLeod (1924-1998), a South African-born American physicist, contributed to the development of the computerized tomographic (CT) scanner. The CT scanner is an X-ray machine that makes a cross-sectional view of a patient's body. It shoots a pencil-thin beam of X rays through the body from many angles. Detectors measure the rays that pass through, and a computer converts the many views into a single, cross-sectional image. CT scanners enable doctors to see detailed pictures of various organs and tissues. Cormack shared the 1979 Nobel Prize for physiology or medicine with the British engineer Sir Godfrey Newbold Hounsfield (see Hounsfield, Sir Godfrey).