George Karpati, (May 17, 1934 – February 6, 2009) was a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

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 ...

and neuroscientist who was one of the leading experts on the diagnosis and treatment of neuromuscular disorders including muscular dystrophy research. Born in

Debrecen Debrecen ( , is Hungary's second-largest city, after Budapest, the regional centre of the Northern Great Plain region and the seat of Hajdú-Bihar County. A city with county rights, it was the largest Hungarian city in the 18th century and ...

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the ...

, Karpati was a

Holocaust survivor Holocaust survivors are people who survived the Holocaust, defined as the persecution and attempted annihilation of the Jews by Nazi Germany and its allies before and during World War II in Europe and North Africa. There is no universally accep ...

who emigrated to Canada in 1957. He received an

M.D. Doctor of Medicine (abbreviated M.D., from the Latin ''Medicinae Doctor'') is a medical degree, the meaning of which varies between different jurisdictions. In the United States, and some other countries, the M.D. denotes a professional degree. ...

from Dalhousie University in 1960. Karpati spent 30 years in clinical practise, research and teaching of neurology. He was the

Izaak Walton Killam Izaak Walton Killam (July 23, 1885 – August 5, 1955) was a Canadian financier. Early life Born in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, he was the son of William Dudman Killam and Arabella Hunter (Belle) Cann. Business ventures As a young banker with the ...

Chair and Professor of Neurology at

McGill University McGill University (french: link=no, Université McGill) is an English-language public research university located in Montreal, Quebec Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous ...

. In 2001, he was made an Officer of the

Order of Canada The Order of Canada (french: Ordre du Canada; abbreviated as OC) is a Canadian state order and the second-highest honour for merit in the system of orders, decorations, and medals of Canada, after the Order of Merit. To coincide with the cen ...

for his "seminal contributions in the area of muscular dystrophy". In 2005, he was made a Knight of the

National Order of Quebec The National Order of Quebec, termed officially in French as ''l'Ordre national du Québec'', and in English abbreviation as the Order of Quebec, is an order of merit in the Canadian province of Quebec. Instituted in 1984 when Lieutenant Governo ...

. In 1999, he was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. He was a member of the Royal Society of Canada and the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. Karpati died on February 6, 2009, aged 74, and was buried in Montreal at the Baron de Hirsch Cemetery.

References

1934 births 2009 deaths Canadian neuroscientists Canadian people of Hungarian-Jewish descent Hungarian neuroscientists Jewish Canadian scientists Fellows of the Royal Society of Canada McGill University faculty Knights of the National Order of Quebec Officers of the Order of Canada Holocaust survivors Hungarian Jews Jewish Canadian writers Hungarian emigrants to Canada Naturalized citizens of Canada People from Debrecen Members of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences {{Hungary-bio-stub