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Santiago y Cajal

1852-1934

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Spanish histologist who (with Camillo Golgi) received the 1906 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for establishing the neuron, or nerve cell, as the basic unit of nervous structure. This finding was instrumental in the recognition of the neuron's fundamental role in nervous function and in gaining a modern understanding of the nerve impulse.

Biography

1852 born March 1 in Spain
1870 enrolled in University of Zargoza
1873 obtained a medical degree at the University of Zaragoza and took his Licentiate in Medicine at Saragossa to serve, after a competitive examination, as an army doctor
1874 took part in an expedition to Cuba where he contracted malaria and tuberculosis
1875 returned to Spain and became an assistant in the medical faculty at University of Zaragoza and assistant in the School of Anatomy
1879 Director of the Zaragoza Museum
1880 published "Manual of normal histology and micrographic technique" and married Doña Silvería Fañanás García (they had 4 daughters and 4 sons)
1883 obtained the degree of Doctor of Medicine at Madrid and unanimously nominated Professor of Descriptive and General Anatomy at Valencia
1884 served as professor of descriptive anatomy at the University of Valencia until 1887
1887 first learns about silver bichromate technique from Simmarro and professor of Histology and Pathological Anatomy at the University of Barcelona until 1892
1888 decided to use embryos for his study
1889 published second edition of "Manual of normal histology and micrographic technique" and small exhibit of drawing at Congress of the German Anatomical Society at the University of Berlin
1892 professor of histology and pathological anatomy at the university of Madrid until 1922
1894 Honorary Doctor of Medicine of the University of Cambridge
1895 Member of the Royal Academy of Sciences of Madrid
1896 Honorary Doctor of Medicine of the University of Wurzburg
1897 Member of Royal Academy of Medicine of Madrid and Spanish Society of Natural History and of the Academy of Sciences of Lisbon
1899 Honorary Doctor of Philosophy of the Clark University where he and other "science superstars" from Europe spoke about their work
1902 appointed director of the "Investigaciones Biológicas" and the "Instituto Nacional de Higiene"
1903 improved Golgi's silver nitrate stain for the general study of the fine structure of nervous tissue in the brain, sensory centers, and the spinal cords of embryos and young animals
1906 received the 1906 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for establishing the neuron, or nerve cell, as the basic unit of nervous structure
1913 developed a gold stain for the general study of the fine structure of nervous tissue in the brain, sensory centers, and the spinal cords of embryos and young animals and published The Degeneration and Regeneration of the Nervous System
1920 King Alfonso XIII of Spain commissioned the construction of the Cajal Institute in Madrid, where Ramón y Cajal worked until his death
1922 academic retirement
1934 died October 17 in Madrid