Frederic Andrews Gibbs (1903–1992) was an American

neurologist Neurology (from el, νεῦρον (neûron), "string, nerve" and the suffix -logia, "study of") is the branch of medicine dealing with the diagnosis and treatment of all categories of conditions and disease involving the brain, the spinal c ...

who was a pioneer in the use of

electroencephalography Electroencephalography (EEG) is a method to record an electrogram of the spontaneous electrical activity of the brain. The biosignals detected by EEG have been shown to represent the postsynaptic potentials of pyramidal neurons in the neocortex ...

(EEG) for the diagnosis and treatment of

epilepsy Epilepsy is a group of non-communicable neurological disorders characterized by recurrent epileptic seizures. Epileptic seizures can vary from brief and nearly undetectable periods to long periods of vigorous shaking due to abnormal electrical ...

. Gibbs graduated from

Yale Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wor ...

and

Johns Hopkins Johns Hopkins (May 19, 1795 – December 24, 1873) was an American merchant, investor, and philanthropist. Born on a plantation, he left his home to start a career at the age of 17, and settled in Baltimore, Maryland where he remained for most ...

in 1929. He was offered a fellowship in

neuropathology Neuropathology is the study of disease of nervous system tissue, usually in the form of either small surgical biopsies or whole-body autopsies. Neuropathologists usually work in a department of anatomic pathology, but work closely with the clinic ...

Stanley Cobb Stanley Cobb (December 10, 1887 – February 25, 1968) was a neurologist and could be considered "the founder of biological psychiatry in the United States". Early life Cobb was born on December 10, 1887, in Brookline, Massachusetts, to John Can ...

, of

Harvard Medical School Harvard Medical School (HMS) is the graduate medical school of Harvard University and is located in the Longwood Medical Area of Boston, Massachusetts. Founded in 1782, HMS is one of the oldest medical schools in the United States and is consi ...

. He studied

in the same laboratory as

William G. Lennox William Gordon Lennox (18 July 1884 – 21 July 1960) was an American neurologist and epileptologist who was a pioneer in the use of electroencephalography (EEG) for the diagnosis and treatment of epilepsy. He graduated from Colorado College and ...

and Erna Leonhardt. Erna Leonhardt was Lennox's technical co-worker and had come to Boston as an immigrant from Germany. She married Gibbs in 1930 and they formed a research team that would last a lifetime, publishing papers together over the next fifty-odd years. The electroencephalograph was primitive in the early 1930s, having only one channel. In 1935, Gibbs asked Albert Grass (an

MIT The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the mo ...

graduate) to build a three-channel EEG. Grass built the machine in his father's basement with the help of his brother. In the same year, Erna and Frederic Gibbs traveled to Europe to attend a conference and visit

Hans Berger Hans Berger (21 May 1873 – 1 June 1941) was a German psychiatrist. He is best known as the inventor of electroencephalography (EEG) in 1924, which is a method used for recording the electrical activity of the brain, commonly described in terms ...

, the inventor of the EEG. In 1944, they moved to University of Illinois School of Medicine, and Frederic Gibbs was promoted to professor in the epilepsy clinic. The Gibbs published the book ''Atlas of Electroencephalography'' in 1941, with a second edition in 1951. Their book valued the subjective and experienced eye of an electroencephalographer over objective mechanical or mathematical analysis. Frederic Gibbs was jointly (with William Lennox) awarded the

Albert Lasker Award for Clinical Medical Research Lasker-DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award is one of four annual awards presented by the Lasker Foundation. The Lasker-DeBakey award is given to honor outstanding work for the understanding, diagnosis, prevention, treatment, and cure of disea ...

in 1951. Erna Gibbs died in 1987.

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Footnotes

# # # {{DEFAULTSORT:Gibbs, Frederic A. American neurologists Yale University alumni Johns Hopkins University alumni Harvard Medical School people 1903 births 1992 deaths Recipients of the Lasker-DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award

Further reading

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