Alois Alzheimer

Born on 14 June 1864, Alzheimer trained as a psychiatrist and neuropathologist in Germany, working alongside Emil Kraepelin. He published the first documented case of what he called "presenile dementia"—a patient whose brain showed unusual plaques and tangles at autopsy. Kraepelin, recognizing the distinctiveness of Alzheimer's findings, later attached his colleague's name to the condition. Alzheimer died on 19 December 1915, fifty-one years old, his name already becoming synonymous with a disease that would define the fears of an aging century.