Dr. Ramón y Cajal earned his Bachelor’s degree in Medicine from the University of Zaragoza. After a short but traumatic experience as a military doctor in Cuba, he accepted a faculty position at the Faculty of Medicine of Zaragoza. In 1883, Dr. Ramón y Cajal held the chair of Anatomy at the University of Valencia and, in 1887, he moved to Barcelona to serve as a Professor of Histology and Pathology. It was in Barcelona that he began the systematic study of the histology of the nervous system and published his first works of international significance. In 1892, he already had an outstanding scientific reputation when he moved to Madrid to serve as a Professor of Histology at the University of Madrid.

Holding his chair position in Madrid meant a consolidation of his social and scientific prestige. During that time, he promoted the improvement of lab material and educational resources. In addition, he published “The Quarterly Journal of Micrographics” and was appointed as Director of the National Institute of Hygiene, Bacteriology and Serotherapy. He also created the Laboratory of Biological Research at the University of Madrid, which led him to establish a new Journal called “Laboratory works in Biology Research”. This new institutional framework encourages the creation of the School of Biological Research.

He won the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1906, and in 1907, he was elected Chairman of the Commission of Extension Studies, the governing body that was responsible for awarding research grants and for the management of Research Centres. As a Chairman of this Commission, Dr. Ramón y Cajal led a period of renewal and improvement of Spanish intellectual and scientific life.

When he retired in 1922, the Cajal Institute was established. This Institute was designed to be a centre of neurobiological research which would bring together all members of the Cajal School. However, as a consequence of Ramón y Cajal’s old age, the problems in the construction of the Institute and finally the outbreak of the civil war, the plan did not work out. 

 

Santiago Ramón y Cajal's writings in the UCM Library

Writings about Santiago Ramón y Cajal in the UCM Library

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