The Most Influential People Across History
Find the most influential people in 24 academic disciplines and numerous subdisciplines
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List of the most influential people in Medical,
#4151
Norman Dott
1897 - 1973 (76 years)
Norman McOmish Dott, CBE FRCSE FRSE FRCSC was a Scottish neurosurgeon. He was the first holder of the Chair of Neurological Surgery at the University of Edinburgh. Life Norman Dott was born in Edinburgh on 26 August 1897, the third of the five children of Rebecca Morton and Peter McOmish Dott , a picture dealer based at 127 George Street in Edinburgh's New Town. He was educated at George Heriot's School and originally intended a career in engineering. However a serious motorcycle accident on Lothian Road, hospitalised him and left him with a permanent leg injury . The long spell in hospital re-inspired Dott and he changed his ambition to focus upon medicine rather than engineering.
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Ugo Cerletti
1877 - 1963 (86 years)
Ugo Cerletti was an Italian neurologist who discovered the method of electroconvulsive therapy used in psychiatry. Electroconvulsive therapy is a therapy in which electric current is used to provoke a seizure for a short duration. This therapy is used in an attempt to treat certain mental disorders, and may be useful when other possible treatments have not, or cannot, cure the person of their mental disorder.
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Raymond Begg
1898 - 1983 (85 years)
Percival Raymond Begg AO was a professor at the University of Adelaide School of Dentistry and a well known orthodontist, famous for developing the "Begg technique". Permanent displays dedicated to the Begg technique can be found in the Smithsonian Institution in Washington DC, the Library of the American Dental Association in Chicago, and the PR Begg Museum at the University of Adelaide.
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Frederick B. Moorehead
1875 - 1944 (69 years)
Frederick Brown Moorehead was an oral surgeon, and led a campaign for what is now the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Dentistry to become part of the University of Illinois. Frederick Moorehead was born in 1875 in Mineral Point, Wisconsin, son of James Walter Moorehead and Mary Jane Brown. He graduated from Chicago College of Dental Surgery in 1899 and from Rush Medical College in 1905.
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C. E. S. Phillips
1871 - 1945 (74 years)
Major Charles Edmund Stanley Phillips OBE FIP FRSE was a 20th-century British physicist and radiologist. He was also a gifted amateur artist. One of the founders of the Institute of Physics in 1920, the Phillips Award is named in his honour.
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Sigmund Freud
1856 - 1939 (83 years)
Sigmund Freud was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis, a clinical method for evaluating and treating pathologies seen as originating from conflicts in the psyche, through dialogue between patient and psychoanalyst, and the distinctive theory of mind and human agency derived from it.
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Wolfgang Rosenthal
1882 - 1971 (89 years)
Wolfgang Rosenthal was a German oral surgeon. Until the mid-1930s, he also pursued a parallel career as a bass-baritone singer. After the destructive bombing of the in Leipzig it became necessary to identify the physical remains of Johann Sebastian Bach before they could be reburied at the Thomaskirche nearby: Rosenthal was able to combine his knowledge of anatomy with his insights into the physical effect of a lifetime of organ playing on a musician's legs to provide the necessary identification.
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Jean Alexandre Barré
1880 - 1967 (87 years)
Jean Alexandre Barré was a French neurologist who in 1916 worked on the identification of Guillain-Barré-Strohl syndrome, as well as Barré–Liéou syndrome. Biography First studies He studied medicine in Nantes, afterwards serving his internship in Paris, where he was influenced by Joseph Babinski . In 1912 he obtained his medical doctorate with a thesis on osteoarthropathy associated with tabes dorsalis.
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Fernando Ocaranza Carmona
1876 - 1965 (89 years)
Fernando Ocaranza Carmona was a Mexican surgeon, rector of the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México , and military in the rank of a Coronel . Ocaranza, son of Ramón Ocaranza and his wife Antonia Carmona, visited the Instituto Científico y Literario de Toluca, studied at the Escuela Práctica Médico Militar, and graduated at the Escuela Nacional de Medicina. Reportedly he passed his practical training in the Guaymas Municipal Hospital, in the Hospital de la Cruz Roja , in the military hospital and in the General Hospital in Mexico City. In 1901 he married Loreto Esquer, who gave birth to the...
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Muriel Bell
1898 - 1974 (76 years)
Muriel Emma Bell was a New Zealand nutritionist and medical researcher. Early life Bell was born in Murchison, New Zealand on 4 January 1898, the daughter of Thomas, a farmer, and Eliza . Bell attended the local school in Murchison. In 1907, her mother was killed, and her father injured, in a tramcar accident in Wellington and her father consequently had to give up farming. He moved the family to Nelson and later became Mayor of Richmond.
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Asta von Mallinckrodt-Haupt
1896 - 1960 (64 years)
Asta von Mallinckrodt-Haupt, also Malinkrodt, was a German dermatologist. She was the first female professor of dermatology in Germany. Life Von Mallinckrodt-Haupt, daughter of Stephan von Haupt, Councillor of the District Court, studied medicine in Berlin from 1915, passing her state examination in 1921, followed by specialist training in dermatology at the Charité under Franz Blumenthal. In 1922, she received her doctorate for her dissertation "Beitrag zur Frage der Immimmitätserscheinungen bei Hyphomycetenerkrankungen" with Blumenthal in Berlin. Together with Blumenthal, she wrote the c...
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Moritz Benedikt
1835 - 1920 (85 years)
Moritz Benedikt also spelt Moriz was a Hungarian-Austrian neurologist who was a native of Eisenstadt. He was an instructor and professor of neurology at the University of Vienna. Benedikt was a physician with the Austrian army during the Second Italian War of Independence and the Austro-Prussian War.
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Friedrich Ludwig Meissner
1796 - 1860 (64 years)
Friedrich Ludwig Meissner was a German obstetrician, gynecologist and pediatrician. He studied medicine in Leipzig, earning his PhD in 1819. From 1821, he taught classes at the University of Leipzig, becoming a professor of obstetrics and gynecology in 1831. In 1838, he founded an obstetrics clinic.
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Patrick Russell
1726 - 1805 (79 years)
Patrick Russell was a Scottish surgeon and naturalist who worked in India. He studied the snakes of India and is considered the "Father of Indian Ophiology". Russell's viper, Daboia russelii, is named after him.
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Harold Stiles
1863 - 1946 (83 years)
Sir Harold Jalland Stiles was an English surgeon who was known for his research into cancer and tuberculosis and for treatment of nerve injuries. Early years Harold Stiles was born in Spalding, Lincolnshire in 1863 the son of Henry Tournay Stiles MD and his wife, Elizabeth Ellen Jalland. He came from a family of doctors. He studied Medicine at the University of Edinburgh, graduating MB ChB in 1885. He earned the Ettles scholarship for the most distinguished graduate of the year. For two years he then taught anatomy at Edinburgh. He was House Surgeon to Professor John Chiene FRSE, Demonstrat...
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C. U. Ariëns Kappers
1877 - 1946 (69 years)
Cornelius Ubbo Ariëns Kappers was a Dutch neurologist and anatomist. Life As a student, Ariëns Kappers was influenced by the work of the German neurologist Ludwig Edinger and Dutch anatomist Louis Bolk . During his career, he amassed around 450 whole brains from over 300 species and over 30,000 brain slices.
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Adolphe-Marie Gubler
1821 - 1879 (58 years)
Adolphe-Marie Gubler was a French physician and pharmacologist born in Metz. Originally a student of botany, he began his medical studies in 1841 at Paris, where he was a pupil of Armand Trousseau . In 1845 he became an interne des hôpitaux, earning his doctorate in 1849. Afterwards he worked as a physician at the Hôpital Beaujon, and in 1853 earned his agrégation with a thesis on cirrhosis of the liver. In 1868 he was appointed professor of therapy to the medical faculty in Paris, maintaining this position until his death in 1879.
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Ōmori Harutoyo
1852 - 1912 (60 years)
Ōmori Harutoyo was a Japanese surgeon who became the first president of the Fukuoka Medical College that was founded in 1903 as a branch of the Medical Faculty of Kyōto University . Ōmori was born in Edo, but he grew up in the domain Kaminoyama where his father Ōmori Kaishun served as a physician to lord Matsudaira Nobumichi. In 1879 he graduated from Tokyo University; the same year he went to a new post in the newly established Fukuoka Medical School. In 1888 when this school was abolished, he was appointed as the first director of the Fukuoka Prefectural Hospital. In 1885, he performed the first cesarean operation in Japan.
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Stanley Sarnoff
1917 - 1990 (73 years)
Stanley J. Sarnoff was an American doctor who produced over 200 papers and 60 patents during his long career. His work included the development of such widely used devices as the "auto-injector," which included the AtroPen, which was filled with Atropine Hydrochloride as an anti-nerve-gas antidote for military use; the LidoPen, which was filled with Lidocaine hydrochloride, for cardiac patients, the EpiPen, containing Epinephrine, for people whose allergies cause anaphylaxis, and the 24-hour cardiac monitor. In addition to his own work, he was devoted to philanthropy and, though the creation...
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Fred. A. Mettler
#4171
Photinos Panas
1832 - 1903 (71 years)
Photinos Panas was an ophthalmologist born on the Greek island of Cefalonia. In 1860 he obtained his medical degree at Paris, where he would later spend his entire medical career. He was the first professor of ophthalmology at the University of Paris, and in 1879 established the ophthalmology clinic at the Hôtel-Dieu de Paris. In 1881 with Edmund Landolt and Antonin Poncet , he founded the Archives d'ophtalmologie.
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Johann Hoffmann
1857 - 1919 (62 years)
Johann Hoffmann was a German neurologist born in Hahnheim. He is remembered for describing Hoffmann's reflex and Werdnig–Hoffmann disease . He is also known for the adult-onset hypothyroid myopathy, Hoffmann syndrome. He was educated at Worms and studied medicine at Heidelberg. He worked under Professor Wilhelm Erb, and succeeded him as head of neurology at Heidelberg.
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Alexander Carl Otto Westphal
1863 - 1941 (78 years)
Alexander Carl Otto Westphal was a German neurologist and psychiatrist. He was the son of the psychiatrist Karl Friedrich Otto Westphal and Clara Mendelssohn and the grandson of Otto Carl Friedrich Westphal.
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Tito Vanzetti
1809 - 1888 (79 years)
Tito Vanzetti was a famous surgeon and professor of medicine of the 19th century. He studied surgery at the University of Padua under Bartolomeo Signoroni and at the University of Vienna with Joseph Wattmann . Several years later, he was appointed professor of clinical surgery and ophthalmology at the University of Kharkiv. In 1853 he returned to Padua as a professor of clinical surgery.
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Rudolf Boehm
1844 - 1926 (82 years)
Rudolf Albert Martin Boehm was a German pharmacologist, known for his work in the field of experimental pharmacology. He studied medicine at the universities of Munich and Würzburg, and in 1868–70 served as an assistant to Franz von Rinecker at the Juliusspital in Würzburg. In 1871 he obtained his habilitation under Adolf Fick, then during the following year was named a professor of pharmacology, dietetics and history of medicine at the University of Dorpat. Later on, he worked as professor of pharmacology at the universities of Marburg and Leipzig , where on four separate occasions he was named dean to the medical faculty.
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Pierre Dominique Delmas
#4177
Roy R. Grinker Sr.
1900 - 1993 (93 years)
Roy Richard Grinker Sr. was an American neurologist and psychiatrist, Professor of Psychiatry at University of Chicago, and pioneer in American psychiatry and psychosomatics. Biography Grinker was born in Chicago, where his father was a neuropsychiatrist. He received a B.S. from the University of Chicago in 1919 and a M.D. in 1921 from Rush Medical College. Directly afterwards he spent a postgraduate year in Europe. In 1933 back in Europe he took psychoanalytic training with Sigmund Freud.
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Francesco Flarer
1791 - 1859 (68 years)
Francesco Flarer was an Italian ophthalmologist born near Merano, South Tyrol. He initially planned to study theology at Innsbruck, but instead enrolled to take classes in medicine, later relocating to the University of Landshut. Political turmoil made his stays at both institutions brief, and in 1809 transferred to the University of Pavia. In 1815 he received his degree in medicine, followed by a doctorate in surgery shortly afterwards.
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Alexis Boyer
1757 - 1833 (76 years)
Alexis Boyer was a French surgeon, born in Corrèze. He was the son of a tailor, and he obtained his first medical knowledge in the shop of a barber surgeon. When he moved to Paris, he had the good fortune to attract the attention of renowned surgeons Antoine Louis and Pierre-Joseph Desault . Boyer persevered at his profession, and became notorious for his anatomical knowledge and surgical dexterity. At the age of 37 he was appointed second surgeon to the Hôtel-Dieu in Paris. On the establishment of the École de Sante, he was named chair of operative surgery, but soon exchanged it for the chair of clinical surgery.
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Julius Geppert
1856 - 1937 (81 years)
August Julius Geppert was a German pharmacologist born in Berlin. He studied medicine at the Universities of Heidelberg and Berlin, earning his doctorate in 1880 with a thesis titled . From 1880 to 1885 he worked as an assistant at the second medical clinic in Berlin, becoming a lecturer at the University of Bonn during the following year. From 1893 he was an associate professor of pharmacology, attaining the title of "full professor" in 1899 at the University of Giessen.
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Klaus Conrad
1905 - 1961 (56 years)
Klaus Conrad was a German neurologist and psychiatrist with important contributions to neuropsychology and psychopathology. He joined the Nazi Party in 1940. He was best known as a professor of psychiatry and neurology, and director of the University Psychiatric Hospital in Göttingen from 1958 until his death.
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Karl Fürstner
1848 - 1906 (58 years)
Karl Fürstner was a German neurologist and psychiatrist born in Strasburg, Uckermark. He studied medicine in Würzburg and Berlin, where he received his doctorate in 1871. In 1872 he was an assistant at the pathological institute of the University of Greifswald, and afterwards worked under Karl Westphal in the psychiatric department at the Berlin-Charité. In 1878 he became the first physician to hold the chair of psychiatry at the University of Heidelberg. He kept this position until 1890, when he became professor of nervous and mental diseases at the University of Strasbourg. At Heidelberg his vacancy was filled by Emil Kraepelin .
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Charles Loomis Dana
1852 - 1935 (83 years)
Charles Loomis Dana was an American physician, professor of nervous and mental disease at Cornell Medical College. Early and personal life Dana was born in Woodstock, Vermont. He was a descendant of Richard Dana .
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Paul Leopold Friedrich
1864 - 1916 (52 years)
Paul Leopold Friedrich was a German surgeon and bacteriologist born in the town of Roda, Saxe-Altenburg. In 1888 he received his doctorate at the University of Leipzig, and as a young assistant worked under Robert Koch at the Reich Health Office in Berlin. From 1894 he worked as a privat-docent of surgery in Leipzig, where in 1896 he became an associate professor. Later he served as a professor at the Universities of Greifswald , Marburg and Königsberg . At Greifswald he succeeded August Bier as director of the Surgical University Hospital. Two of Friedrich's well-known assistants were Fer...
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Albert Narath
1864 - 1924 (60 years)
Albert Narath was an Austrian surgeon and anatomist. He was an assistant of Theodor Billroth at the University of Vienna, and from 1896 to 1906 was a professor of surgery at Utrecht. In 1906 he succeeded Vincenz Czerny as chair of surgery at the University of Heidelberg surgical clinic. He resigned this position in 1910 due to health reasons, but continued to contribute articles to scientific publications during the ensuing years.
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R. C. Williams
1888 - 1984 (96 years)
Ralph Chester Williams was an Assistant Surgeon General with the U.S. Public Health Service, with rank of rear admiral. He also served as the national president of Tau Kappa Epsilon and Theta Kappa Psi fraternities.
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Malcolm Harold Lader
#4188
Morinosuke Chiwaki
1870 - 1947 (77 years)
Morinosuke Chiwaki was a dentist and the Chairman of the Japan Dental Association. He was one of the founders of Takayama Dental School , which was later named Tokyo Dental College . He was known as Hideyo Noguchi's patron.
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Joseph Hasner
1819 - 1892 (73 years)
Joseph Hasner, Ritter von Artha was an Austrian ophthalmologist born in Prague. His brother, Leopold Hasner von Artha , was an influential Austrian politician. He studied medicine at the University of Prague, and subsequently worked at the local general hospital . In 1843 he was an assistant at Johann Fischer's eye clinic. In 1848 he gained his habilitation, and in 1852 he became an associate professor. From 1856 he was a "full professor" of ophthalmology and a primary physician in Prague. Starting in 1869 he was an editor of the Vierteljahrsschrift für die praktische Heilkunde .
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James Spence
1812 - 1882 (70 years)
James Spence FRSE FRCSEd was a Scottish surgeon. He served as President of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh 1867/68. Life He was born on 31 March 1812 at 12 South Bridge in Edinburgh, the son of James Spence, a perfumer, and his third wife.
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Zheng Ji
1900 - 2010 (110 years)
Zheng Ji also known as Libin T. Cheng , was a Chinese nutritionist and a pioneering biochemist. He was reputed to be the world's oldest professor and the founder of modern nutrition science in China, having lived to the age of 110.
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Alfred Goldscheider
1858 - 1935 (77 years)
Johannes Karl Eugen Alfred Goldscheider was a German neurologist born into a Jewish family in Sommerfeld, Kingdom of Prussia. He studied medicine at Friedrich-Wilhelm Medical-Surgical Institute in Berlin , and subsequently spent the next seven years as a military physician. During this period of time, he also served as an assistant to physiologist Emil du Bois-Reymond . He later became a professor at the University of Berlin.
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Anton von Frisch
1849 - 1917 (68 years)
Anton von Frisch , full name Anton Ritter von Frisch, was an Austrian urologist. Frisch was born in Vienna. He studied at the Pasteur Institute in Paris, afterwards returning to Vienna, where he served as a demonstrator under Josef Hyrtl and as an assistant to Theodor Billroth . In 1874 he became a professor at the University of Vienna. In 1899 he was appointed head of the department of urology at the Allgemeine Poliklinik Wien . Through Frisch's efforts, urology became recognized as an independent subject at the medical faculty in Vienna.
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Jacob Fidelis Ackermann
1765 - 1815 (50 years)
Jacob Fidelis Ackermann was a German professor of anatomy and surgery. Ackermann was born in Rüdesheim am Rhein. He began his studies at Würzburg and earned his doctorate in Mainz in 1787. After extensive research travel he was promoted to private lecturer for forensic medicine in 1789. He acquired the regular professorship in botanics and later in anatomy when Samuel Thomas von Sömmering resigned his office.
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Rudolf Kobert
1854 - 1918 (64 years)
Rudolf Kobert was a German pharmacologist and toxicologist born in Bitterfeld. In 1877 he graduated from the University of Halle, afterwards working as an assistant to physiologist Friedrich Goltz and pharmacologist Oswald Schmiedeberg at the University of Strasbourg. In 1887 he was appointed professor of pharmacology, dietetics and history of medicine at the University of Dorpat. One of his students was Peter Hermann Stillmark who was the founder of lectinology with the publication of his thesis about ricin.
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Ida Mann
1893 - 1983 (90 years)
Professor Dame Ida Caroline Mann, Mrs Gye, DBE, FRCS was "a distinguished ophthalmologist ... equally well known for her pioneering research work on embryology and development of the eye, and on the influences of genetic and social factors on the incidence and severity of eye disease throughout the world". Only six other women were Fellows at this time.
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Bernice Eddy
1903 - 1989 (86 years)
Bernice Eddy was born on September 30, 1903. She is best-known for her work as an epidemiologist and virologist, particularly her work with polio vaccine trials. Eddy was born in Glen Dale, West Virginia. She attended Marietta College for her undergraduate work and pursued a master’s degree and PhD in bacteriology from the University of Cincinnati. After graduation, Eddy began working for the Biologics Control Division National Institutes of Health. She tested polio vaccines for 5 different companies in this capacity. One of the five vaccines tested was made by Cutter Laboratories. Eddy disco...
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Lynne Warner. Stevenson
#4199
Jacob Hermann Knapp
1832 - 1911 (79 years)
Jacob Hermann Knapp , also known as Hermann Knapp, was a German-American ophthalmologist and otolaryngologist. Biography Knapp was born in Dauborn, Nassau. He earned his medical degree from the University of Giessen in 1854. As a young physician he studied with Franciscus Cornelis Donders in Utrecht, William Bowman in London, Albrecht von Graefe in Berlin and Hermann von Helmholtz in Heidelberg. From 1860 until 1868 he was a professor of ophthalmology at Heidelberg.
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Gabriel Steiner
1883 - 1965 (82 years)
Gabriel Steiner was a German-American neurologist known for his research of multiple sclerosis. In his studies, he postulated a link between multiple sclerosis and certain forms of spirochetes. Of Jewish ancestry, he studied medicine at the universities of Munich, Würzburg, Freiburg and Strasbourg, receiving his doctorate at the latter university in 1910. In 1913 he qualified as a lecturer in neurology and psychiatry, and from 1920, worked as an associate professor at the University of Heidelberg. Here, he was also head of the laboratory for pathological anatomy at the psychiatric-neurologica...
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