Santiago Ramón y Cajal

In 1879, he married Silvería Fañanás García, and remaine married to her until her death in 1930. They had seven children and out of them two died in their childhood.

Ramón y Cajal died in Madrid on October 18, 1934.

Santiago Ramón y Cajal was born on May 1, 1852, at Petilla de Aragón in Northeast Spain. His father was a village surgeon and later worked as Professor of Dissection at the University of Zaragoza.

He was apprenticed to a shoemaker and a barber in order to tame his wild nature.

In the summer of 1868, his father took him to graveyards to find bones for anatomical study. Sketching bones interested him and subsequently, this talent helped him find success in his medical career.

Ramón y Cajal attended the medical school of the University of Zaragoza and took his Licentiate in Medicine in 1873.

After successfully appearing for a competitive examination, he became an army doctor in the Spanish army.

In 1979, Ramón y Cajal became the Director of the Saragossa Musuem.

He was appointed as professor of Descriptive and General anatomy at the University of Valencia in 1883.

In 1885, during his term as Professor at the University of Valencia, he was awarded a modern Zeiss microscope by the Provincial government of Zaragoza. This was done to honour him for his efforts during a cholera epidemic.

At the end of 1887, Ramón y Cajal moved to Barcelona, where he joined as Professor of Histology and Pathological Anatomy.

In 1892, he was appointed to the same chair at the University of Madrid.

Ramón y Cajal’s greatest discovery was the axonal growth cone. He demonstrated via experiments that the relationship between nerve cells was contiguous. This led to the "neuron doctrine", now extensively considered as the basis of modern neuroscience.

He also discovered an interstitial cell found within the gastrointestinal tract. This cell serves as the generator and pacemaker that creates slow wave potential and helps in the contraction of the smooth muscle. The cell was named ‘interstitial cell of Cajal’ after him.