Born: July 12, 1918, Bridgewater, Nova Scotia
Education: B.A. - Acadia University, 1939; M.S.C. - Dalhousie University, 1942; M.D., C.M. - McGill University, 1945; Ph.D - Oxford University, 1949
Category: Clinical Research / Builder

On completing his D.Phil. in neuroanatomy at Oxford and his neurosurgical residency in Montreal, Dr. Feindel worked for two years together with Dr. Wilder Penfield at the Montreal Neurological Institute (MNI) before moving in 1955 to Saskatchewan to found the Neurosurgical Department at the new University Hospital in Saskatoon. When he returned to McGill University and the MNI in 1959, he continued his brilliant practise of neurosurgery and his research on the application of the successive new scanning methods that were becoming available for imaging the human brain: Computer Aided Tomography (CAT); Positron Emission Tomography (PET); Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI). As Director of the MNI between 1972 and 1984, Dr. Feindel supervised the funding and construction of the Penfield Pavilion (1978) and the Webster Pavilion (1984), which doubled the Institute’s clinical and research resources. Throughout his career he has been interested in the traditions of his discipline, while carrying out active historical research on Dr. Thomas Willis (1621-1675) and Dr. Wilder Penfield. Dr. Feindel was appointed an Officer of the Order of Canada in 1983 and has received Honorary Degrees from several Canadian universities.