Bennie Bub, M.D.
The Neuroscience Explosion
There is ample evidence of brain surgery, dating back to the Neolithic (late Stone Age - 7000 BCE) period. Thousands of years later Egyptians still regarded the brain as "cranial stuffing" of no great significance. Even Aristotle believed the heart was the center of intelligence and that the brain served simply as a radiator to cool the blood. Throughout, the brain has remained enduringly fascinating.
During recent centuries, knowledge has painstakingly accrued. However, acceleration in understanding the nervous system by whatever means, serendipity, common sense, heurism or genius, has been enhanced by a recent surge of interest from allied disciplines.
Today, neuroscience has become a recognized discipline (with more than 50 Nobel prizes) unifying and integrating more than 40 convergent, overlapping fields involving scientific studies germane to the nervous system. In this presentation we will explore some of the individuals, events and advances in the history of Neuroscience.
Bennie Bub is a South African neurosurgeon who is board certified in three different specialties on three continents. His teaching career began when, as a medical student, he taught physics at a technical college in return for car maintenance courses. After receiving his MD at the University of Cape Town he certified in general surgery gaining his FRCS (Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons) in the UK.
Immediately thereafter, having been captivated by the complexities of the brain, he began his neurosurgical studies in London at the National Hospital for Nervous Diseases and Epilepsy, today called The National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery. Founded in 1859 it was the first hospital of its kind in England, being dedicated exclusively to treating the diseases of the nervous system. Thereafter he became a Teaching and Research Fellow at Harvard College as well as a resident in the Harvard Neurosurgical Service at Boston City and Massachusetts General Hospitals. Concurrently, he studied violin performance in the Boston Conservatory of Music under Reuben Gregorian.
This Boston sojourn was followed by completion of his neurosurgical certification in South Africa. While senior consultant at Groote Schuur Hospital (where Chris Barnard performed the world's first heart transplant) he began his years of busy neurosurgical private practice combined with a senior lectureship in the Department of Neurosurgery at the University of Cape Town. During this period he founded the first multidisciplinary clinic in South Africa for the diagnosis and management of intractable pain.
Immigration to the USA in 1976 was followed by training and board certification in Anesthesiology. He then joined a practice in Denver from which he retired after more than 20 years. In the early nineties he was founder and CEO of a successful database company, which provided credentialing of physicians for health insurance companies. Since retirement he has indulged in his love of music, travel and voracious reading, all the while striving to stay au currant with the neurosciences. He also lectures at the Academy for Lifelong Learning where he will repeat a course on neurobiology starting fall '09.
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