# Fame.am profile — machine-readable export
# Canonical URL: https://fame.am/person/william-b-kouwenhoven
# Generated: 2026-08-15T03:14:06.621Z

schema: https://schema.org/Person
url: "https://fame.am/person/william-b-kouwenhoven"
name: "William B. Kouwenhoven"
slug: "william-b-kouwenhoven"
description: "William Bennet Kouwenhoven was an American electrical engineer. Known as the \"Father of Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation\", he is best known for his contributions to the development of the closed-chest cardiac massage and his invention of the cardiac defibrillator. After obtaining his doctorate degree in engineering from the Karlsruhe Technische Hochschule in Germany, Kouwenhoven began his career as the dean at the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. Kouwenhoven focused his research mainly on improving and saving lives of patients through the application of electricity. With the help and cooperation of the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine's Department of Surgery and an Edison Electric Institute grant, Kouwenhoven was able to develop a closed-chest defibrillator. For his contributions to the field of medical science, he became the first ever recipient of an honorary degree conferred by the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. Two years before his death, Kouwenhoven was also awarded the Albert Lasker Award for Clinical Medical Research."
tagline: "American electrical engineer (1886–1975)"
image: "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:FilePath/William_B._Kouwenhoven.jpg?width=1200"
gender: "male"
country:
  name: "United States"
  isoCode: "US"
category:
  name: "Scientists"
  slug: "scientists"
profileType:
  name: "Scientist"
  slug: "scientist"
  entityType: "https://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q39631"
birthDate: "1886-01-13"
deathDate: "1975-11-10"
livingStatus: "DECEASED"
scores:
  popularity:           40.76
  momentum:             0.12853470437018
  historical:           5.480850666666667
  currentAttention:     0
  sourceConfidence:     35
  profileCompleteness:  70
  trendDirection:       "FALLING"
ranks:
  global:   null
  country:  null
  category: null
sources:
  - url: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_B._Kouwenhoven"
    title: "William B. Kouwenhoven"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://azb.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D9%88%DB%8C%D9%84%DB%8C%D8%A7%D9%85_%DA%A9%D9%88%D9%88%D9%87%D9%88%D9%86"
    title: "ویلیام کووهون"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_B._Kouwenhoven"
    title: "William B. Kouwenhoven"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Kouwenhoven"
    title: "William Kouwenhoven"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://fa.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D9%88%DB%8C%D9%84%DB%8C%D8%A7%D9%85_%DA%A9%D9%88%D9%88%D9%87%D9%88%D9%86"
    title: "ویلیام کووهون"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://mg.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_B._Kouwenhoven"
    title: "William B. Kouwenhoven"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1589796"
    title: "Wikidata"
    type:  "WIKIDATA"

# bio (long form, separated for readability)
bio: |
  Imported from discovery source: wikidata-dump