Arthur Earl Walker
{{Infobox scientist
| name = Arthur Earl Walker
| image =
| alt =
| caption =
| birth_name =
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1907|03|12|df=}}
| birth_place = Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
| death_date = {{Death date and age|1995|01|01|1907|03|12|df=}}
| death_place = Arizona
| other_names =
| alma_mater = University of Alberta
| work_institutions = Johns Hopkins Hospital
| field = Neurosurgery, neuroscience and epileptology
| known_for = Description of Dandy–Walker malformation and Walker–Warburg syndrome
| children =
}}
Arthur Earl Walker (March 12, 1907 – January 1, 1995) was a Canadian-born American neurosurgeon, neuroscientist and epileptologist remembered for the eponymous syndromes Dandy–Walker syndrome, Dandy–Walker-like syndrome{{cite journal |vauthors=Ritscher D, Schinzel A, Boltshauser E, Briner J, Arbenz U, Sigg P |title=Dandy–Walker(like) malformation, atrio-ventricular septal defect and a similar pattern of minor anomalies in 2 sisters: a new syndrome? |journal=Am. J. Med. Genet. |volume=26 |issue=2 |pages=481–91 |date=February 1987 |pmid=3812597 |doi=10.1002/ajmg.1320260227 }} and Walker–Warburg syndrome. During his career he published over 400 research articles and 8 books.{{cite news| work= The New York Times | url=https://www.nytimes.com/1995/01/07/obituaries/a-earl-walker-87-a-professor-and-researcher-in-neurosurgery.html|title=A. Earl Walker, 87, a Professor And Researcher in Neurosurgery|author= Wolfgang Saxon
|date= January 7, 1995 |page= 30}}
Biography
Arthur Earl Walker was born in 1907 in Winnipeg, Manitoba, and graduated from the University of Alberta in 1930. He undertook training at Yale University and in Amsterdam and Brussels,[http://www.whonamedit.com/doctor.cfm/418.html Biography at whonamedit.com] and continued his training as instructor of neurological surgery at the University of Chicago from 1937, becoming one of a new breed of neurosurgeons who advanced the scientific study of neurology and neurosurgery. During the Second World War he worked as Chief of Neurology at Cushing General Hospital in Framingham, Massachusetts, where he developed an interest in post-traumatic epilepsy.{{cite journal |vauthors=WALKER AE, QUADFASEL FA |title=Problems in post-traumatic epilepsy |journal=Arch Neurol Psychiatry |volume=59 |issue=2 |pages=254–8 |date=February 1948 |pmid=18861102 }}{{cite journal |vauthors=WALKER AE, MARSHALL C, BERESFORD EN |title=Cortical activity in cases of post-traumatic epilepsy |journal=Arch Neurol Psychiatry |volume=59 |issue=4 |pages=558 |date=April 1948 |pmid=18879804 }}
In 1947, he became professor of neurological surgery at the Johns Hopkins Hospital. He was professor there for 25 years until his retirement in 1972, and during this time he established the division of neurosurgery and the formal resident training program in neurosurgery. He also established the electrophysiology laboratory which bears his name.
He was a president of the American Association of Neurological Surgeons and the World Federation of Neurological Societies, and after his retirement he became emeritus professor of neurology and neurosurgery at the University of New Mexico School of Medicine, Albuquerque.
He died on January 1, 1995, while travelling near Tucson, Arizona, apparently of a heart attack, aged 87.
Publications
In 1938, he published The Primate ThalamusA. Earl Walker. The Primate Thalamus. University of Chicago Press, 1938. which explained the organization of this part of the brain. In 1951, he edited A History of Neurological Surgery.A. Earl Walker (Ed.) A History of Neurological Surgery. The Williams & Wilkins Company, Baltimore, Maryland, 1951.
In 1942, he published an article describing congenital atresia of the foramens of Luschka and Magendie.Walker AE, Taggart JK. Congenital atresia of the foramens of Luschka and Magendie. Archives of Neurology and Psychiatry 1942;48:583-612. A similar case had previously been described by Walter Dandy in 1921, and the syndrome became known as the Dandy–Walker syndrome. He also published an article on Lissencephaly,Walker AE. Lissencephaly. Archives of Neurology and Psychiatry 1942;48:13-29. which became known as Walker–Warburg syndrome after publication of further articles on the disorder by Mette Warburg.{{cite journal |author=Warburg M |title=Ocular malformations and lissencephaly |journal=Eur. J. Pediatr. |volume=146 |issue=5 |pages=450–2 |date=September 1987 |pmid=3119342 |doi= 10.1007/BF00441592|s2cid=29664325 }}
In 1945–46, he published studies of the effects of penicillin on the central nervous system.{{cite journal |vauthors=Walker AE, Johnson HC |title=Principles and Practice of Penicillin Therapy in Diseases of the Nervous System |journal=Ann. Surg. |volume=122 |issue=6 |pages=1125–35 |date=December 1945 |pmid=17858705 |pmc=1618345 |doi= 10.1097/00000658-194512260-00021}}{{cite journal |vauthors=Walker AE, Johnson HC, Case TJ, Kollros JJ |title=Convulsive Effects of Antibiotic Agents on the Cerebral Cortex |journal=Science |volume=103 |issue=2665 |pages=116 |date=January 1946 |pmid=17795263 |doi=10.1126/science.103.2665.116 |bibcode=1946Sci...103..116W |url=http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/pmidlookup?view=long&pmid=17795263}}
References
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Category:American neurosurgeons
Category:Johns Hopkins Hospital physicians
Category:Canadian emigrants to the United States
Category:University of Alberta alumni
Category:Yale University alumni
Category:University of Chicago alumni
Category:American epileptologists