Wilder Penfield
| Wilder Penfield | |
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Penfield in 1934
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| Born | Wilder Graves Penfield January 26, 1891 Spokane, Washington, United States |
| Died | April 5, 1976 (aged 85) Montreal, Quebec, Canada |
| Nationality | Canadian |
| Fields | Neurosurgery |
| Institutions |
Montreal Neurological Institute McGill University |
| Alma mater |
Princeton University Merton College, Oxford Johns Hopkins School of Medicine |
| Known for |
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| Notable awards |
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Wilder Graves Penfield OM CC CMG FRS (January 26, 1891 – April 5, 1976) was an American-Canadian pioneering neurosurgeon once dubbed "the greatest living Canadian." He expanded brain surgery's methods and techniques, including mapping the functions of various regions of the brain such as the cortical homunculus. His scientific contributions on neural stimulation expand across a variety of topics including hallucinations, illusions, and déjà vu. Penfield devoted a lot of his thinking to mental processes, including contemplation of whether there was any scientific basis for the existence of the human soul.
Penfield was born in Spokane, Washington on January 26, 1891, but spent most of his early life in Hudson, Wisconsin. He studied at Princeton University, where he was a member of Cap and Gown Club and played on the football team. After graduation in 1913, he was hired briefly as the team coach. In 1915 he obtained a Rhodes Scholarship to Merton College, Oxford, where he studied neuropathology under Sir Charles Scott Sherrington. After one term at Merton, Penfield went to France where he served as a dresser in a military hospital in the suburbs of Paris. He was wounded in 1916 when the ferry he was aboard, the SS Sussex, was torpedoed. The following year he married Helen Kermott, and began studying at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, taking his medical degree in 1918; this was followed by a short period as a house surgeon at the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital in Boston. Returning to Merton College in 1919, Penfield spent the next two years completing his studies; during this time he met William Osler. In 1924, he worked for five months with Pío del Río Hortega characterising the type of glial cells known as oligodendroglia. He also studied in Germany and New York City.
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