Medicine: 1909

Kocher, Emil Theodor, pronounced KOH kuhr, AY mihl TAY oh dohr (1841-1917), a Swiss surgeon, is best remembered for his pioneer work on the thyroid gland. In 1878 he performed, for the first time, an operation for the removal of a goiter (enlarged thyroid gland). Kocher discovered that after the gland had been removed, patients developed symptoms resembling a condition called cretinism. His findings helped confirm the role of the thyroid in cretinism. Kocher received the 1909 Nobel Prize for physiology or medicine for his work on the physiology, pathology, and surgery of the thyroid gland. Kocher was born at Bern. He was a professor of surgery at the University of Bern from the age of 31 until his death.

Contributor: Matthew Ramsey, Ph.D., Associate Professor of History, Vanderbilt University.