Patrick David Wall

Patrick David Wall
Artist's impression of Patrick David Wall
Born	25 April 1925 Nottingham
Died	8 August 2001 prostate cancer
Nationality	United Kingdom
Fields	neuroscience
Institutions	Yale School of Medicine University of Chicago Harvard University Massachusetts Institute of Technology University College London
Alma mater	University of Oxford
Doctoral students	Maria Fitzgerald
Known for	Gate control theory of pain
Notable awards	Sherrington Medal (1988) Royal Medal (1999)

Patrick David "Pat" Wall (25 April 1925 – 8 August 2001) was a leading British neuroscientist described as 'the world's leading expert on pain' and best known for the gate control theory of pain.

Wall was born in Nottingham on 25 April 1925 to Thomas Wall, the director of education for Middlesex, and his wife Ruth Cresswell. He was educated at St Paul's School in London. He matriculated to Oxford University, studying medicine at Christ Church, where he became interested in pain. He published his first two papers, in the prominent science journals Brain and Nature, at the age of 21. While at Oxford he had also helped found the British Medical Students' Journal, partially to help campaign for the introduction of the NHS. He graduated in 1948, by which time he had published three papers in prominent science journals. After graduating, he spent a short time treating holocaust survivors and refugees in mainland Europe, and then moved to the United States where he took up a position as an instructor at the Yale School of Medicine investigating the use of lobotomies as a method of controlling depression.

He remained as an instructor until 1950, when he was offered a position as an assistant professor at the University of Chicago. He moved again in 1953 to serve as an instructor at Harvard University, and again in 1957 to work as an associate professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He was promoted to full professor in 1960, and while at the Institute met Ronald Melzack, who was to become a long-time collaborator. At Melzack's urging they wrote a paper on the Gate control theory of pain and published it in Brain in 1962; according to Wall it was read by around three people. After expanding and rewriting the article they republished it as Pain Mechanisms: a new theory in Science in 1965 where it drew wider attention, with mostly negative comments. The paper was looked at in a new light after Wall collaborated with Bill Sweet to produce the Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulator, developed along the lines of the theory. The effective working of the device validated Wall and Melzack's paper, and Wall gained acclaim as a leading neuroscientist. In 1965 he published TRIO - The Revolting Intellectuals' Organisation, a thriller novel. In 1973 he acted as the scientific study officer for the launch of the International Association for the Study of Pain, and subsequently acted as the first editor of its medical journal, Pain.