Oliver Sacks

Oliver Wolf Sacks, CBE was a renowned British neurologist who spent a significant portion of his career in the United States. He was born in North London in 1933 to two doctors, making him the youngest of four children. His parents, who were Jewish, sent him and his brother to a boarding school in the Midlands as a safety measure during The Blitz. Sacks' interest in medicine developed at a young age, and he pursued his education at The Queen's College, Oxford University, where he earned a BA in physiology and biology, followed by an MA and MB ChB.

Sacks moved to New York in 1966, where he lived until his death in 2015. He began working at Beth Abraham Hospital in 1966, where he treated survivors of the 1920s sleeping sickness, encephalitis lethargica, who had been unable to move for decades. His work with these patients formed the basis of his book, Awakenings, which was later adapted into a film starring Robin Williams and Robert De Niro. Sacks' work at Beth Abraham helped establish the Institute for Music and Neurologic Function, where he served as an honorary medical advisor.

Sacks was a prolific writer and authored several successful books, including "The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat" and "Musicophilia." His writing explored the strange neurological predicaments and conditions of his patients, earning him the nickname "the poet laureate of medicine." Over the years, he received numerous awards, including honors from the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Science Foundation, the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and the Royal College of Physicians. In 2008, he was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire. Sacks' memoir, "On the Move," was published shortly before his death in August 2015.