Alf Brodal (25 January 1910 – 29 February 1988) was a

Norwegian Norwegian, Norwayan, or Norsk may refer to: *Something of, from, or related to Norway, a country in northwestern Europe * Norwegians, both a nation and an ethnic group native to Norway * Demographics of Norway *The Norwegian language, including ...

professor of

anatomy Anatomy () is the branch of biology concerned with the study of the structure of organisms and their parts. Anatomy is a branch of natural science that deals with the structural organization of living things. It is an old science, having it ...

Personal life

He was born in

Kristiania Oslo ( , , or ; sma, Oslove) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of ...

as a son of the doctor of engineering Peter Brodal (1872–1935) and his wife Helene Kathrine Obenauer (1879–1934). He was a brother of violinist Jon Brodal (1911-1998) and psalm writer Anne Margarethe Brodal (1914-1999). Brodal was married to physiotherapist Inger Olivia Hannestad (1910–1986). He died in 1988 in

Bærum Bærum () is a municipality in the Greater Oslo Region in Norway that forms an affluent suburb of Oslo on the west coast of the city. Bærum is Norway's fifth largest municipality with a population of 128,760 (2021). It is part of the electoral ...

. Their son Per Alf Brodal also became a professor of medicine.

Career

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his secondary education in 1929 and the cand.med. degree in 1937. He took the dr.med. degree in 1940 on the thesis ''Experimentelle Untersuchungen über die olivocerebellare Lokalisation''. He was hired at the

University of Oslo The University of Oslo ( no, Universitetet i Oslo; la, Universitas Osloensis) is a public research university located in Oslo, Norway. It is the highest ranked and oldest university in Norway. It is consistently ranked among the top universit ...

in 1943, and was promoted to professor in 1950. He was a specialist in

neuroanatomy Neuroanatomy is the study of the structure and organization of the nervous system. In contrast to animals with radial symmetry, whose nervous system consists of a distributed network of cells, animals with bilateral symmetry have segregated, defi ...

, and was particularly interested in the cerebellum, the reticular substance and the

vestibular nuclei The vestibular nuclei (VN) are the cranial nuclei for the vestibular nerve located in the brainstem. In Terminologia Anatomica they are grouped in both the pons and the medulla in the brainstem. Structure Path The fibers of the vestibular n ...

. He worked closely with Jan Birger Jansen. His books include ''Nevro-anatomi i relasjon til klinisk nevrologi'' (1943), the translation ''Neurological Anatomy in Relation to Clinical Medicine'' (1st edition 1948),(2d edition 1969,(3d edition 1981) and ''Centralnervesystemet'' (1949). In 1973, after suffering a stroke the previous year, he wrote an unusual article, ''Self-Observations and Neuro-Anatomical Considerations After a Stroke'', published in the journal ''

Brain A brain is an organ that serves as the center of the nervous system in all vertebrate and most invertebrate animals. It is located in the head, usually close to the sensory organs for senses such as vision. It is the most complex organ in a ve ...

''. He chaired the editorial committee of the Norwegian journal '' Tidsskrift for Den norske Lægeforening'' from 1959 to 1975. He also had a considerable catalogue of publications in popular science. Brodal served as the

dean Dean may refer to: People * Dean (given name) * Dean (surname), a surname of Anglo-Saxon English origin * Dean (South Korean singer), a stage name for singer Kwon Hyuk * Dean Delannoit, a Belgian singer most known by the mononym Dean Titles * ...

of the Faculty of Medicine from 1964 to 1966, and as vice rector from 1967 to 1969 under

rector Rector (Latin for the member of a vessel's crew who steers) may refer to: Style or title *Rector (ecclesiastical), a cleric who functions as an administrative leader in some Christian denominations *Rector (academia), a senior official in an edu ...

Hans Vogt. From 1966 to 1969 he was a member of ''Hovedkomiteen for norsk forskning''. He retired as a professor in 1977. Brodal was a member of the

Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters ( no, Det Norske Videnskaps-Akademi, DNVA) is a learned society based in Oslo, Norway. Its purpose is to support the advancement of science and scholarship in Norway. History The Royal Frederick Unive ...

from 1944 to his death. He received

honorary degree An honorary degree is an academic degree for which a university (or other degree-awarding institution) has waived all of the usual requirements. It is also known by the Latin phrases ''honoris causa'' ("for the sake of the honour") or ''ad hon ...

s at

Uppsala University Uppsala University ( sv, Uppsala universitet) is a public research university in Uppsala, Sweden. Founded in 1477, it is the oldest university in Sweden and the Nordic countries still in operation. The university rose to significance during ...

(1966),

University of Paris , image_name = Coat of arms of the University of Paris.svg , image_size = 150px , caption = Coat of Arms , latin_name = Universitas magistrorum et scholarium Parisiensis , motto = ''Hic et ubique terrarum'' (Latin) , mottoeng = Here and a ...

(1975) and the

University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...

(1983). He was decorated as a Knight of the Order of St. Olav in 1969, and was promoted to Commander of the same order in 1980.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Brodal, Alf 1910 births 1988 deaths Physicians from Oslo Norwegian anatomists University of Oslo alumni University of Oslo faculty Members of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters Norwegian neurologists