Vilayanur Ramachandran
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Background
Vilayanur Ramachandran was born in 1951 in Tamil Nadu, India. He agraduated Stanley Medical College in Madras, India with his M.D. in 1974. He then attended the Trinity College at the University of Cambridge for his Ph.D. in neuroscience and experimental psychology. He did his postdoctoral studies at the physiology department at Oxford University. After two years of research at Caltech, Ramachandran was appointed assistant professor at the University of California, San Diego, in 1983, and received full professorship in 1998.
Contributions
Ramachandran's work had mostly covered research made on neuropsychological phenomenon, including Capgras delusion and synesthesia; and complicated topics such as visual perception, autism, and stroke rehabilitation. His best known research has been on phantom limbs phenomenon, and pain experienced in patients with amputated limbs. In this area, Ramachandran has developed treatments to help amputees resolve their "pain", while discovering the neural pathways involved in this occurrence.
Publications
• Phantoms in the Brain : Probing the Mysteries of the Human Mind, 1998
• The Encyclopedia of the Human Brain, 2003
• A Brief Tour of Human Consciousness: From Impostor Poodles to Purple Numbers, 2005
• The Man with the Phantom Twin: Adventures in the Neuroscience of the Human Brain, 2008
Accomplishments
Ramachandran was elected to fellowships at All Souls College in Cambridge, and at the Royal Institution in London. He has also received several awards, including the Henry Dale Medal in 2005, the Ariens Kappers Medal, and was given the title Padma Bhushan by the president of India in 2007.
