Santiago Ramón y Cajal

Santiago Ramón y Cajal was born in Spain on 1 May 1852. He trained as a pathologist and histologist, then turned his microscope to the structure of the nervous system at a time when no one understood how brain cells actually connected. Using careful observation and an artist's eye, he mapped the arborization — the tree-like branching — of individual neurons, proving they were distinct units rather than a fused mesh. In 1906 he shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Camillo Golgi, becoming the first Spaniard to win a scientific Nobel. He died on 17 October 1934, leaving behind hu…