In the history of medicine, Niels Ryberg Finsen is one of the names that keeps returning.
The record lists Niels Ryberg Finsen as Faroese physician and scientist of Icelandic descent.
Niels Ryberg Finsen was born at Tórshavn in 1860. His recorded nationality is Denmark. He trained at University of Copenhagen.
Anaesthesia, antisepsis and germ theory arrived within fifty years and made modern surgery possible for the first time.
His posts were held at University of Copenhagen.
The recorded fields of work are light therapy.
The test of medical work is whether practice changed, not whether the argument was elegant.
Recognition followed: Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (1903), Cameron Prize of the University of Edinburgh and Grand Cross of the Order of the Dannebrog.
That the work was done from Denmark matters: hospitals, training and research funding are unevenly distributed, and they decide which questions can be asked.
Niels Ryberg Finsen died in 1904, aged 44. What survives is the change in practice, which is how a medical life is actually measured.
Achievements
- Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine — 1903
- Cameron Prize of the University of Edinburgh
- Grand Cross of the Order of the Dannebrog
- Held posts at University of Copenhagen
- Fields: light therapy
