Wilder Penfield

Wilder Graves Penfield (January 25/26, 1891 - April 5, 1976) was a American-born Canadian neurosurgeon.

He was born in Spokane, Washington, and studied at Princeton University before winning a Rhodes Scholarship. He spent years training at Oxford, and in Spain, Germany, and New York, before becoming the first neurosurgeon in Montreal.

Penfield was a groundbreaking researcher and devoted surgeon. He discovered the connections between different areas of the brain and the various limbs and organs, mapping both the sensory and the motor cortex. He also discovered that electrode stimulation could lead to vivid recall of memories.

During his life he was called "the greatest living Canadian." He devoted much thinking to the functionings of the mind, and continued until his death to contemplate whether there was any scientific basis for the existence of the human soul.

He taught at McGill University before becoming the director of the Montreal Neurological Institute, which he helped establish in 1934.