Niels Ryberg Finsen

Niels Ryberg Finsen was born on 15 December 1860, trained as a physician, and turned his attention to what light could do to living tissue. His work centered on concentrated light radiation—focused, deliberate exposure—and its effect on lupus vulgaris, a disfiguring tuberculosis of the skin that had resisted most treatments. The method worked. In 1903, the Nobel committee awarded him the prize in Medicine and Physiology for opening a new avenue in medical science, one that hadn't existed before he aimed the beam. He died the following year, 24 September 1904, forty-three years old.