Corneille Heymans

Corneille (Corneel) Jean François Heymans (1892-1968) was a Belgian (Flemish) scientist and Nobel Prize winner.

Heymans studied medicine at Ghent University and continued studying physiology in Paris, Lausanne, Vienna and the United States. In 1922 he became a lecturer in pharmacodynamics in Ghent. When his father Jean François Heymans retired as pharmacology professor in 1930, Corneille succeeded him as professor and head of the Pharmacological and Therapeutic Institute.

In 1938 he received the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for his discovery how the body measures data about blood pressure and the oxygen level in the blood and sends it to the brain.

After the war he was commissioned with special missions by the Belgian government and the World Health Organization. From 1953 to 1963 he travelled to Iran, India, Egypt, Belgian Congo, Latin America, China, Japan, Iraq, Tunisia and Cameroun.

Because of his enormous knowledge of pharmacology the World Health Organization nominated him as member of the Committee of Experts of the International Pharmacopoeia.

He received many decorations and honorary doctorates. A crater on the moon has been named after him.

Link

Documents and speeches from the 1938 Nobel Prize Presentation.

Stamp catalogue

Belgium 14 February 1987

Up - Home

last revised: 1 March 2010