Biographical sketch: Nosrat Ollah Ameli, MB, ChB (Hons), ChM (Birm), FICS, FRCS (Eng)

Abstract

Nosrat Ollah Ameli (1913–2010) was one of the pioneers in Iranian neurosurgery. After training in England in the 1950s, Ameli returned to his country to found the Darioush Kabir Hospital, where he started the first neurosurgical ward in collaboration with Prof. E. Samiy. Here he applied his genius and innovation to develop unique approaches to the management of challenging neurosurgical techniques, in the context of limited resource available at that time. He started the training of neurosurgeons in Iran. He was internationally recognised being elected as a vice president of the World Federation of Neurosurgical Societies (WFNS). His efforts extended beyond neurosurgery to many other fields. He published extensively in international peer reviewed medical journals around the world and contributed to the foundation of Acta Medica Iranica journal, the first scientific medical journal in English published by Tehran University of Medical Sciences. His efforts to improve medical education in Iran continued even through his years of retirement. This article recounts Nosrat Ollah Ameli's many contributions to Iran's medical education as well as his achievements as a neurosurgeon.

Keywords::

• Iran
• neurosurgery
• neurosurgical society
• N. O. Ameli

Acknowledgements

We would like to appreciate Prof. Shakeri for his taintless guidance in many stages of the study and for providing us with his valuable and unique source of information on Ameli. We would also like to thank Prof. Rahmat for answering our questions and problems and Mrs. Pourmand for her careful editing of the manuscript. The study followed the principles in the Declaration of Helsinki.

Declaration of interest: The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.

Notes

*Ameli's account given during his lecture entitled ‘Iranian Race and Language’ to the Iranian group of engineers at the Technical Faculty of Tehran University Association's meeting, Ontario, Canada, 2009.