Dr. Santiago Ramón y Cajal

Son of Justo Ramón (a great doctor) and Antonia Cajal. He was born on May 1, 1852 In Petilla de Aragón (Navarre) He had one brother, Pedro and two sisters, Pabla and Jorja.

When he was a child, he was a quiet and reliable boy, but at the age of 10 his character changed. He led gangs of naughty children who broke windows, stole fruit, played hooky and played jokes on old people. He was put in prison for four days for breaking the door of a corral near his house.

At the age of 6 he could write well and he knew a little French, geography and arithmetic. He moved to Ayerbe (Huesca) to study. He pulled many pranks there. He liked to play with bows and arrows and slingshots and all the incidents of the town were blamed on him. He was always getting into trouble. At the age of 10 he decided to study painting, but his father didn’t agree with his decision so he prohibited him to develop his talent… Santiago didn’t like this…

He developed great gymnastic and literary skills. He was scolded by his Greek teacher on several occasions, so he decided not to attend the final exam. For his bad marks, he was punished by his father and forced to work as a cobbler’s apprentice. His skill was surprising, but he lost an entire year of study.

After one year without going to school, his father decided that he should return to his studies and accepted that he was going to take a drawing course. He stood out for his artistic abilities, in a brilliant way, but his father didn’t allow him to follow this path… At the age of 16, he became serious with his studies due to the fact that he liked his new subjects, such as chemistry, physics and natural history. His first drawings were about the human body, because when he was younger his father taught him anatomy.

He did his primary studies with The Escolapios Of Jaca (Huesca) In spite of being a rebel boy, he managed to finish his studies. He went to the Institute of Huesca where his drawing skills were recognized.

He graduated in 1873 in the Faculty of Medicine in Zaragoza.

On July 19, 1879 (at the age of 27) he married Silveria Fañanás and they had 7 children.

RAMON Y CAJAL & SILVERIA IN 1880 HIS FIRST CHILD WAS BORN SHE WAS CALLED FE. IN 1882, SANTIAGO WAS BORN, HIS SECOND CHILD HIS THIRD CHILD WAS PAULA VICENTA, SHE WAS BORN IN 1884 A YEAR LATER HIS FOURTH CHILD JORGE WAS BORN IN 1887 ENRIQUETA WAS BORN, HIS FIFTH CHILD PILAR WAS HIS SIXTH CHILD, SHE WAS BORN IN 1890, HIS LAST CHILD WAS LUIS, HE WAS BORN IN 1892

HIS ACHIEVEMENTS In 1877, he became a doctor and was able to buy his first microscope. He was awarded a professorship in descriptive anatomy medicine at Valencia University in 1883.

In 1887 he moved to Barcelona to hold the histology professorship at Barcelona University. In 1892 he held the histology, histochemistry and anotomy professorship at Madrid University. He persuaded the government to create a modern laboratory for biological investigations in 1902.

Ramón y Cajal’s success arrived when he improved the Golgi method of dyeing cells, so he could explain the neuron theory.

In 1906, he won the Nobel Prize in Medicine, shared with Golgi

A SUPPOSED JOKE On 6 th of October 1906 at midnight, Santiago Ramón y Cajal received a telegram from Sweden telling him about the Nobel Prize. But he thought it was a students’ joke and continued sleeping. He found out it was true when he read the newspaper the next day.

His theories continued with Eric Richard Kandel He was born in Vienna in When he was 10, he emigrated to New York, where he studied medicine. He dedicates his talent to neurobiology. He received the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 2000 for his neuron research.

It has been proven that Ramón y Cajal was right, which confirms that memory is placed in the neurons and they create a connection circuit. He proved that neurons can regenerate themselves and are multiplied with practice.