Ludvig Puusepp Biography

Estonian scientist Ludvig Puusepp is recognized as the world’s first professor of neurosurgery. He studied neurology in Russia under prominent neurologists, becoming a professor of neuropathology and a key innovator in surgeries of the brain and nervous system. He is remembered as a diligent visionary ahead of his time, a researcher who not only advanced his field but set the groundwork for generations of improvements in the treatment of diseases and injuries affecting the spine and brain. Undeterred by the conflicts surrounding him in late-19th and early-20th century Europe, he worked and studied despite intense poverty, family illness, international economic depression, the Russian Revolution, and several wars. As a professor of neurology and neurosurgery, he lectured at medical schools around Europe, educating dozens of future specialists. Diagnostic tools he pioneered, including identifying a slight abnormality in the movement of the little toe as a sign of a neurological disorder, are still used by doctors. He engaged enthusiastically in the exchange of scientific knowledge, publishing extensively in research journals and taking advantage of innovations, including those in neuroimaging, being made throughout the world. He traveled throughout Europe, demonstrating his skills, giving legitimacy to medical research and surgery in an age when quack-scientists continued to undermine health advances