Joseph Erlanger life and biography

Joseph Erlanger (January 5, 1874 – December 5, 1965) was an American physiologist.For improving the understanding of nerve impulse transmission, Joseph Erlanger and Herbert S. Gasser were awarded the 1944 Nobel Prize in medicine or physiology. Erlanger also designed and built a better sphygmomanometer -- the device that measures blood pressure.

While teaching at the University of Wisconsin, Gasser was one of Erlanger's students, and when Wisconsin's lack of funding to equip his lab forced Erlanger to move to Washington University in St. Louis, Gasser followed him there.

With a specially-modified oscilloscope, they researched the electrophysiology of the nervous system, and established that different nerve fibers conduct different sizes of wavelengths or impulses.

Author of books:
-Electrical Signs of Nervous Activity (1937, with Herbert S. Gasser)

Read more