Founder, Montreal Neurological Institute, McGill U.
Wilder Penfield was born in Spokane, Washington. He studied at Princeton and Oxford and became a neurosurgeon. He was able to increase accuracy and improve treatment of focal epilepsy by gentle electrical stimulation. He mapped out new functional areas of the human cerebral cortex, and discovered that stimulation of parts of the cortex could activate the neuronal record of past experiences. He was a founder of the Montreal Neurological Institute. He received the Lannelongue Medal of France, the Lister Medal of the Royal College of Surgeons and the British Order of Merit.
Litt.B., Princeton, 1913; BA, Oxford, 1916; MA and BSc, 1920; DSc, 1935; MD, Johns Hopkins, 1918. Neurosurgeon, Presbyterian Hospital, New York, 1921; Assoc. prof. neurology, McGill U., and neurosurgeon, Royal Victoria Hospital and Montreal General Hospital, 1928; prof. and chrmn., Dept. of Neurology, McGill and Dir., Montreal Neurological Institute, 1934. Fellow, Royal Societies of London, Edinburgh, & Canada. Awards: Lannelongue Medal, France, 1958; Lister Medal of Royal College of Surgeons, 1961; British Order of Merit. Ed., "The Cytology and Cellular Pathology of the Nervous System," 3 vols., 1932; co-author "Cerebral Cortex of Man" 1950; "Epilepsy and the Functional Anatomy of the Human Brain" 1954; author, "Excitable Cortex in Conscious Man" 1958; co-author, "Speech and Brain-mechanisms" 1959; author, "The Second Career" 1963.
Sources: Modern Men of Science, 1966;
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