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Galen Award

The Galen Awards program is named after Claudius Galenus (AD 129 – AD 217), better known as Galen of Pergamon. Galen was a Roman physician and surgeon (of Greek ancestry) who is arguably the most accomplished of all medical researchers of antiquity. Galen contributed greatly to the understanding of numerous scientific disciplines including anatomy, physiology, pathology, pharmacology, neurology, philosophy, and logic.  Galen is considered one of the most influential physicians of all time.                         

The son of Aelius Nicon, a wealthy architect with scholarly interests, Galen received a comprehensive education that prepared him for a successful career as a physician and philosopher. He traveled extensively, exposing himself to a wide variety of medical theories and discoveries before settling in Rome, where he served prominent members of Roman society and eventually was given the position of personal physician to several emperors. He was the physician of the Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius.

Galen's understanding of anatomy and medicine was principally influenced by the then-current theory of humorism, as advanced by many ancient Greek physicians such as Hippocrates.  Galen’s works in many ways came to symbolize Greek medicine to the medical scholars of Europe and the Middle East for the next fifteen centuries.  Galen remains a towering figure in the history of medicine.

 

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