Oliver Sacks, M.D. - Academy of Achievement

<!doctype html> <html lang="en-US" prefix="og: http://ogp.me/ns#"> <head><script type="text/javascript" src="/_static/js/bundle-playback.js?v=HxkREWBo" charset="utf-8"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="/_static/js/wombat.js?v=txqj7nKC" charset="utf-8"></script> <script>window.RufflePlayer=window.RufflePlayer||{};window.RufflePlayer.config={"autoplay":"on","unmuteOverlay":"hidden"};</script> <script type="text/javascript" src="/_static/js/ruffle/ruffle.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript"> __wm.init("https://web.archive.org/web"); __wm.wombat("http://www.achievement.org:80/achiever/oliver-sacks-m-d/","20180928060637","https://web.archive.org/","web","/_static/", "1538114797"); </script> <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="/_static/css/banner-styles.css?v=S1zqJCYt" /> <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="/_static/css/iconochive.css?v=3PDvdIFv" />  <meta charset="utf-8"> <meta http-equiv="x-ua-compatible" content="ie=edge"> <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1"> <link rel="apple-touch-icon-precomposed" sizes="57x57" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20180928060637im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/apple-touch-icon-57x57.png"/> <link rel="apple-touch-icon-precomposed" sizes="114x114" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20180928060637im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/apple-touch-icon-114x114.png"/> <link rel="apple-touch-icon-precomposed" sizes="72x72" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20180928060637im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/apple-touch-icon-72x72.png"/> <link rel="apple-touch-icon-precomposed" sizes="144x144" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20180928060637im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/apple-touch-icon-144x144.png"/> <link rel="apple-touch-icon-precomposed" sizes="60x60" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20180928060637im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/apple-touch-icon-60x60.png"/> <link rel="apple-touch-icon-precomposed" sizes="120x120" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20180928060637im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/apple-touch-icon-120x120.png"/> <link rel="apple-touch-icon-precomposed" sizes="76x76" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20180928060637im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/apple-touch-icon-76x76.png"/> <link rel="apple-touch-icon-precomposed" sizes="152x152" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20180928060637im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/apple-touch-icon-152x152.png"/> <link rel="icon" type="image/png" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20180928060637im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/favicon-196x196.png" sizes="196x196"/> <link rel="icon" type="image/png" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20180928060637im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/favicon-96x96.png" sizes="96x96"/> <link rel="icon" type="image/png" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20180928060637im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/favicon-32x32.png" sizes="32x32"/> <link rel="icon" type="image/png" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20180928060637im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/favicon-16x16.png" sizes="16x16"/> <link rel="icon" type="image/png" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20180928060637im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/favicon-128.png" sizes="128x128"/> <meta name="application-name" content="Academy of Achievement"/> <meta name="msapplication-TileColor" content="#000000"/> <meta name="msapplication-TileImage" content="http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/mstile-144x144.png"/> <meta name="msapplication-square70x70logo" content="http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/mstile-70x70.png"/> <meta name="msapplication-square150x150logo" content="http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/mstile-150x150.png"/> <meta name="msapplication-wide310x150logo" content="http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/mstile-310x150.png"/> <meta name="msapplication-square310x310logo" content="http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/mstile-310x310.png"/> <link href="https://web.archive.org/web/20180928060637cs_/https://fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=Source+Sans+Pro:400,600,400italic,600italic,700,700italic" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css"> <title>Oliver Sacks, M.D. - Academy of Achievement</title>  <meta name="description" content="Dr. Oliver Sacks was a practicing clinical neurologist and author, renowned for his fascinating true-life reports from the mysterious frontiers of neurological experience. Born and raised in London, he spent most of his life in New York City as a consulting neurologist for hospitals and nursing homes. There he treated men and women suffering from every possible disorder of the brain and nervous system, from well-known disorders such as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's to baffling conditions in which selective brain and motor functions would be completely impaired while other faculties would be unaffected or developed to a high degree. He drew on his vast collection of case histories in a series of bestselling books, including Awakenings and The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat. Readers, critics and fellow writers were enthralled by the extraordinary symptoms he reported, and the depth of human insight and feeling he brought to his cases. Cherished by both his readers and his patients, he won even greater admiration for the courage and equanimity with which he confronted his own approaching death from cancer. He spent his last years producing remarkably frank and lucid memoirs and reflections on an altogether extraordinary life. "/> <link rel="canonical" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20180928060637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/oliver-sacks-m-d/"/> <meta property="og:locale" content="en_US"/> <meta property="og:type" content="article"/> <meta property="og:title" content="Oliver Sacks, M.D. - Academy of Achievement"/> <meta property="og:description" content="<p class="p1"><span class="s1">Dr. Oliver Sacks was a practicing clinical neurologist and author, renowned for his fascinating true-life reports from the mysterious frontiers of neurological experience. Born and raised in London, he spent most of his life in New York City as a consulting neurologist for hospitals and nursing homes. There he treated men and women suffering from every possible disorder of the brain and nervous system, from well-known disorders such as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's to baffling conditions in which selective brain and motor functions would be completely impaired while other faculties would be unaffected or developed to a high degree.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">He drew on his vast collection of case histories in a series of bestselling books, including <i>Awakenings</i> and <i>The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat</i>. Readers, critics and fellow writers were enthralled by the extraordinary symptoms he reported, and the depth of human insight and feeling he brought to his cases.</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s2">Cherished by both his readers and his patients, he won even greater admiration for the courage and equanimity with which he confronted his own approaching death from cancer. He spent his last years producing remarkably frank and lucid memoirs and reflections on an altogether extraordinary life. </span></p>"/> <meta property="og:url" content="https://web.archive.org/web/20180928060637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/oliver-sacks-m-d/"/> <meta property="og:site_name" content="Academy of Achievement"/> <meta property="og:image" content="https://web.archive.org/web/20180928060637im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/sacks-Feature-Image-2800x1120.jpg"/> <meta property="og:image:width" content="2800"/> <meta property="og:image:height" content="1120"/> <meta name="twitter:card" content="summary"/> <meta name="twitter:description" content="<p class="p1"><span class="s1">Dr. Oliver Sacks was a practicing clinical neurologist and author, renowned for his fascinating true-life reports from the mysterious frontiers of neurological experience. Born and raised in London, he spent most of his life in New York City as a consulting neurologist for hospitals and nursing homes. There he treated men and women suffering from every possible disorder of the brain and nervous system, from well-known disorders such as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's to baffling conditions in which selective brain and motor functions would be completely impaired while other faculties would be unaffected or developed to a high degree.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">He drew on his vast collection of case histories in a series of bestselling books, including <i>Awakenings</i> and <i>The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat</i>. Readers, critics and fellow writers were enthralled by the extraordinary symptoms he reported, and the depth of human insight and feeling he brought to his cases.</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s2">Cherished by both his readers and his patients, he won even greater admiration for the courage and equanimity with which he confronted his own approaching death from cancer. He spent his last years producing remarkably frank and lucid memoirs and reflections on an altogether extraordinary life. </span></p>"/> <meta name="twitter:title" content="Oliver Sacks, M.D. - Academy of Achievement"/> <meta name="twitter:image" content="https://web.archive.org/web/20180928060637im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/sacks-Feature-Image-2800x1120.jpg"/> <script type="application/ld+json">{"@context":"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20180928060637\/http:\/\/schema.org","@type":"WebSite","@id":"#website","url":"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20180928060637\/http:\/\/www.achievement.org\/","name":"Academy of Achievement","alternateName":"A museum of living history","potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20180928060637\/http:\/\/www.achievement.org\/search\/{search_term_string}","query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}</script> <script 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class="feature-area__text-inner text-white"> <h2 class="serif-8 feature-area__text-subhead back"><a href="/web/20180928060637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever">All achievers</a></h2> <h1 class="serif-1 entry-title feature-area__text-headline">Oliver Sacks, M.D.</h1> <h5 class="sans-6 feature-area__blurb">Neurologist and Author</h5> </div> </figcaption> </div> </div> </figure> </header> </div>  <nav class="in-page-nav row fixedsticky"> <ul class="nav text-xs-center clearfix" role="tablist"> <li class="nav-item col-xs-3"> <a class="nav-link active" data-toggle="tab" href="#biography" role="tab" data-gtm-category="tab" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever Biography">Biography</a> </li> <li class="nav-item col-xs-3"> <a class="nav-link" data-toggle="tab" href="#profile" role="tab" data-gtm-category="tab" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever Profile">Profile</a> </li> <li class="nav-item col-xs-3"> <a class="nav-link" data-toggle="tab" href="#interview" role="tab" data-gtm-category="tab" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever Interview">Interview</a> </li> <li class="nav-item col-xs-3"> <a class="nav-link" data-toggle="tab" href="#gallery" role="tab" data-gtm-category="tab" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever Gallery">Gallery</a> </li> </ul> </nav> <article class="post-37467 achiever type-achiever status-publish has-post-thumbnail hentry careers-author careers-neurologist careers-surgeon-medical-doctor careers-writer"> <div class="entry-content container clearfix">  <div class="tab-content"> <div class="tab-pane fade in active" id="biography" role="tabpanel"> <section class="achiever--biography"> <div class="row"> <header class="editorial-article__header col-md-8 col-md-offset-2 text-xs-center"> <i class="icon-icon_bio text-brand-primary"></i> <h3 class="serif-3 quote-marks">The interest in science was something secret and private. Later, when I did science at school, I didn't enjoy it nearly as much. I didn't enjoy school. I enjoyed museums, botanical gardens, libraries, laboratories, where one was immediately in contact with — I'm not fond of schools and textbooks. </h3> </header> </div> <div class="row"> <aside class="col-md-4 sidebar clearfix"> <h2 class="serif-3 p-b-1">The Poet Laureate of Medicine</h2> <div class="col-xs-12 sidebar--chunk p-b-2"> <dt class="serif-7">Date of Birth</dt> <dd class="sans-2"> July 9, 1933 </dd> </div> <div class="col-xs-12 sidebar--chunk p-b-2"> <dt class="serif-7">Date of Death</dt> <dd class="sans-2"> August 30, 2015 </dd> </div> </aside> <article class="editorial-article col-md-8"> <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd"> <html><body><figure id="attachment_38407" style="width: 800px" class="wp-caption alignright"><noscript><img class="size-full wp-image-38407 " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20180928060637im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/oliver-sacks-autobiography-memoir-five-seconds-my-own-life-01.jpg"></noscript><img class="size-full wp-image-38407 lazyload" alt="" width="800" height="1214" data-sizes="(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px" data-srcset="/web/20180928060637im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/oliver-sacks-autobiography-memoir-five-seconds-my-own-life-01.jpg 800w, /web/20180928060637im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/oliver-sacks-autobiography-memoir-five-seconds-my-own-life-01-250x380.jpg 250w, /web/20180928060637im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/oliver-sacks-autobiography-memoir-five-seconds-my-own-life-01-501x760.jpg 501w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20180928060637/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/oliver-sacks-autobiography-memoir-five-seconds-my-own-life-01.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Oliver Sacks was born in 1933 in the Orthodox Jewish community of Cricklewood, London, England. His father, Samuel Sacks, was a physician, and his mother, Muriel Elsie Landau, one of the first female surgeons in England.</figcaption></figure><p class="p1"><span class="s1">Oliver Sacks was born in London, England. He grew up surrounded by a large extended family, one with many doctors and scientists. Both his parents were medical doctors. His father was a general practitioner and his mother was one of the first female surgeons in England. His childhood was darkened by the shadow of war. As Germany began sustained bombing of London, eight-year-old Oliver and his older brother were sent to a boarding school in the countryside. The separation from his home and parents, along with the harsh discipline of the school, was traumatic for young Oliver. Later in life, he attributed his severe shyness and discomfort in ordinary social situations to this early experience. He also experienced lifelong difficulty in recognizing faces, a little-known ailment at the time, but one that is known today as prosopagnosia or face blindness. His older brother was even more severely affected, and never recovered. Young Oliver Sacks took comfort in the study of science. As a child, he was fascinated by a giant display of the periodic table of elements at the Museum of Natural History. A chemist uncle, nicknamed Uncle Tungsten, encouraged his interest in chemistry. His mother shared the insights of her medical practice with her talented son, showing him specimens of diseased brains and deformed fetuses, and bringing him along to observe the dissection of a human cadaver. His interest in neurology and the brain was nurtured at St. Paul’s School, which maintained a collection of preserved human brains in jars, including those of famous writers.</span></p> <figure id="attachment_38453" style="width: 779px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><noscript><img class="wp-image-38453 size-full " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20180928060637im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Awakenings_Image-courtesy-of-Vintage.jpg"></noscript><img class="wp-image-38453 size-full lazyload" title="(The Oliver Sacks Foundation)" alt="(The Oliver Sacks Foundation)" width="779" height="1200" data-sizes="(max-width: 779px) 100vw, 779px" data-srcset="/web/20180928060637im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Awakenings_Image-courtesy-of-Vintage.jpg 779w, /web/20180928060637im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Awakenings_Image-courtesy-of-Vintage-247x380.jpg 247w, /web/20180928060637im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Awakenings_Image-courtesy-of-Vintage-493x760.jpg 493w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20180928060637/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Awakenings_Image-courtesy-of-Vintage.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">1973: <em>Awakenings</em> is the remarkable account of a group of patients who contracted sleeping sickness during the great epidemic just after World War I. Frozen in a decades-long sleep, these men and women were given up as hopeless until 1969, when Dr. Oliver Sacks gave them the then-new drug L-DOPA, which had an astonishing, explosive, “awakening” effect. Dr. Sacks recounts the moving case histories of these individuals, the stories of their lives, and the extraordinary transformations they underwent with treatment. This book was the inspiration for the 1990 major motion picture starring Robert De Niro, and Robin Williams as Dr. Sacks. (Courtesy Oliver Sacks)</figcaption></figure><p class="p1"><span class="s1">For years, Oliver followed the course his family set for him, excelling in school and obtaining a medical degree at Oxford. But by adulthood, a rift had developed between Oliver and his parents. Oliver admitted to his father that he was gay, a fact that his parents could not reconcile with the teachings of their Orthodox Jewish faith. Seeking a new life away from the powerful influence of his family, he moved to the United States in 1960.</span></p> <figure id="attachment_38451" style="width: 1633px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><noscript><img class="wp-image-38451 size-full " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20180928060637im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/themanwhomistookhiswifeforahat_hr.jpg"></noscript><img class="wp-image-38451 size-full lazyload" title="(The Oliver Sacks Foundation)" alt="(The Oliver Sacks Foundation)" width="1633" height="2524" data-sizes="(max-width: 1633px) 100vw, 1633px" data-srcset="/web/20180928060637im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/themanwhomistookhiswifeforahat_hr.jpg 1633w, /web/20180928060637im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/themanwhomistookhiswifeforahat_hr-246x380.jpg 246w, /web/20180928060637im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/themanwhomistookhiswifeforahat_hr-492x760.jpg 492w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20180928060637/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/themanwhomistookhiswifeforahat_hr.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">1985: “In the bestselling book <em>The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, </em>Dr. Oliver Sacks recounts the case histories of patients lost in the bizarre, apparently inescapable world of neurological disorders: people afflicted with fantastic perceptual and intellectual aberrations; patients who have lost their memories and with them the greater part of their pasts; who are no longer able to recognize people and common objects; who are stricken with violent tics and grimaces or who shout involuntary obscenities; whose limbs have become alien; who have been dismissed as retarded yet are gifted with uncanny artistic or mathematical talents.” (The Oliver Sacks Foundation)</figcaption></figure><p class="p1"><span class="s1">He undertook a neurology internship at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), where he also completed his residency in neurology — “the only branch of medicine that could sustain a thinking man,” as he later called it. Life in Southern California agreed with Sacks. The nascent counterculture of the 1960s offered opportunities for a far greater variety of social interactions than the more traditional atmosphere he had known in England. He bought a motorcycle and explored this new world on long distance road trips. In San Francisco he made the acquaintance of the British expatriate poet Thom Gunn, who encouraged his interest in writing. He lived in the beach community of Venice, where he joined the fraternity of bodybuilders at Muscle Beach, and set a local powerlifting record. He also experimented recklessly with all sorts of drugs. While these experiences, later described in his memoir <i>Hallucinations</i>, gave him some insight into the delusions of his psychotic patients, they also endangered his physical and mental health.</span></p> <figure id="attachment_38449" style="width: 2280px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><noscript><img class="size-full wp-image-38449 " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20180928060637im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/wp-GettyImages-50542507_master.jpg"></noscript><img class="size-full wp-image-38449 lazyload" alt="" width="2280" height="1528" data-sizes="(max-width: 2280px) 100vw, 2280px" data-srcset="/web/20180928060637im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/wp-GettyImages-50542507_master.jpg 2280w, /web/20180928060637im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/wp-GettyImages-50542507_master-380x255.jpg 380w, /web/20180928060637im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/wp-GettyImages-50542507_master-760x509.jpg 760w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20180928060637/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/wp-GettyImages-50542507_master.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">1986: Dr. Oliver Sacks outside his childhood home in Cricklewood in Northwest London, England. Sacks followed his 1985 bestseller,<em> The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, with</em> <em>Seeing Voices</em> (1989), <em>An Anthropologist on Mars</em> (1995), and <em>The Island of the Colorblind</em> (1997). (Photo by Sahm Doherty/The LIFE Images Collection/Getty Images)</figcaption></figure><p class="p1"><span class="s1">In 1965, Dr. Sacks moved to New York City, where he would make his home for the rest of his life. He gave up his drug experiments and began to focus on a serious career as a practicing neurologist. One of his first jobs in New York was at a nursing home, Beth Abraham, in the Bronx. There he encountered a group of silent patients, standing like statues. An epidemic of <i>encephalitis lethargica</i> — “sleeping sickness” — that had swept the Western world from 1916 to 1927 had shut many of them off from the world for over 40 years. As he got to know them, Dr. Sacks came to believe that intact human personalities were trapped inside these expressionless bodies. With the use of the newly available experimental drug L-DOPA, he was able to revive some of these patients and return them to consciousness for a time. In many cases, the adjustment to life in a world that had passed them by was painful. Many reverted quickly to their catatonic states, others gradually declined. A few retained some of their faculties for years after regaining consciousness.</span></p> <figure id="attachment_38492" style="width: 2280px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><noscript><img class="size-full wp-image-38492 " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20180928060637im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/wp-2000-Summit-Scottsdale-AZ-Oliver-Sacks-on-panel.jpg"></noscript><img class="size-full wp-image-38492 lazyload" alt="" width="2280" height="1808" data-sizes="(max-width: 2280px) 100vw, 2280px" data-srcset="/web/20180928060637im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/wp-2000-Summit-Scottsdale-AZ-Oliver-Sacks-on-panel.jpg 2280w, /web/20180928060637im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/wp-2000-Summit-Scottsdale-AZ-Oliver-Sacks-on-panel-380x301.jpg 380w, /web/20180928060637im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/wp-2000-Summit-Scottsdale-AZ-Oliver-Sacks-on-panel-760x603.jpg 760w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20180928060637/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/wp-2000-Summit-Scottsdale-AZ-Oliver-Sacks-on-panel.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Golden Plate Awards Council member and geneticist Dr. Francis S. Collins moderates a science symposium panel with Academy members: paleontologist Prof. Jack Horner, paleoanthropologist Dr. Don Johanson, theoretical physicist Dr. Freeman J. Dyson, computer scientist and inventor Dr. Marvin Minsky, neurologist and bestselling author Dr. Oliver Sacks, and Egyptologist Kent Weeks during the 2000 Achievement Summit in Scottsdale, Arizona.</figcaption></figure><p>From the beginning of his medical practice, Sacks took copious notes of all his cases. For his first book, he drew on a subject that had long fascinated him. From an early age he had suffered from migraine headaches, as had his mother. Drawing on his personal experience, deep learning and vast collection of detailed case histories, he wrote his first book, <i>Migraine</i>, in only ten days. His account of the sleeping sickness cases, <i>Awakenings</i>, was first published in 1973. It attracted relatively little attention at the time, but Sacks acquired a small following of readers, not only among fellow neurologists but among members of the general pubic, not least other writers, who recognized him as a gifted storyteller as well as a brilliant clinician. While continuing his duties at Beth Abraham, Sacks also worked at Holy Family Homes, nursing facilities run by the order of nuns known as the Little Sisters of the Poor — one in the Bronx, one in Queens, and one in Brooklyn. Unlike many other clinicians, Sacks always looked for the individual behind the symptoms, in hopes of treating even the most apparently hopeless cases. Through the 1970s, Sacks worked in relative obscurity, compiling case histories of a vast array of neurological ailments: epilepsy, Parkinson’s disease, autism, Tourette’s syndrome, retardation, dementia, schizophrenia, brain tumors and head injuries.</p> <figure id="attachment_38455" style="width: 2280px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><noscript><img class="wp-image-38455 size-full " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20180928060637im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/wp-OUT068426.jpg"></noscript><img class="wp-image-38455 size-full lazyload" title="(The Oliver Sacks Foundation)" alt="(The Oliver Sacks Foundation)" width="2280" height="3030" data-sizes="(max-width: 2280px) 100vw, 2280px" data-srcset="/web/20180928060637im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/wp-OUT068426.jpg 2280w, /web/20180928060637im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/wp-OUT068426-286x380.jpg 286w, /web/20180928060637im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/wp-OUT068426-572x760.jpg 572w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20180928060637/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/wp-OUT068426.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">2001: “In <em>Uncle Tungsten</em>, Sacks invokes his childhood in wartime England and his early scientific fascination with light, matter and energy. The ‘Uncle Tungsten’ of the book’s title is Sacks’s Uncle Dave, who manufactured light bulbs with filaments of fine tungsten wire, and who first initiated Sacks into the mysteries of metals. Sacks describes his four torturous years at boarding school during the war, where Oliver Sacks was sent to escape the bombings, and his profound inquisitiveness cultivated by living in a household steeped in learning, religion and politics (both his parents were doctors and his aunts were ardent Zionists).” (Image by © Erica Berger/Corbis)</figcaption></figure><p>The extraordinary symptoms he encountered in his practice led him to write the book that brought his work to the attention of the general public, <i>The Man Who Mistook His Wife For a Hat</i>. Readers and critics were fascinated by his stories of men and women who remained highly functional in many respects but had lost faculties that most of us take for granted. Some had lost all memory of their past lives, or were no longer able to recognize family members and common objects. Some had no control of their limbs or speech, while others appeared to be developmentally disabled yet possessed extraordinary artistic or mathematical abilities.</p> <figure id="attachment_38411" style="width: 2972px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><noscript><img class="wp-image-38411 size-full " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20180928060637im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/OUT917050.jpg"></noscript><img class="wp-image-38411 size-full lazyload" alt="" width="2972" height="3780" data-sizes="(max-width: 2972px) 100vw, 2972px" data-srcset="/web/20180928060637im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/OUT917050.jpg 2972w, /web/20180928060637im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/OUT917050-299x380.jpg 299w, /web/20180928060637im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/OUT917050-598x760.jpg 598w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20180928060637/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/OUT917050.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">2001: Dr. Oliver Sacks seated next to his collection of elements and in front of the periodic table of elements. In 2015, in a piece for <i>The New York Times,</i> he wrote, “When I was sent away to a boarding school as a child of 6, at the outset of the Second World War, numbers became my friends; when I returned to London at 10, the elements and the periodic table became my companions. Times of stress throughout my life have led me to turn, or return, to the physical sciences, a world where there is no life, but also no death.” (Photo by Jurgen Frank/Corbis Outline)</figcaption></figure><p>Published in 1983, the book was an international success, not only because of the extraordinary subject matter but because of Sacks’s deep insight as a clinician and gifts as a writer. He continued to explore the outer limits of neurological experience in his subsequent books, <i>An Anthropologist on Mars</i> and <i>The Island of the Colorblind</i>. The worldwide success of these books drew renewed attention to his earlier writing. In 1990, his book <i>Awakenings</i> was made into a feature film, with the actor Robin Williams playing Dr. Sacks, and Robert De Niro one of his patients.</p> <figure id="attachment_38452" style="width: 2280px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><noscript><img class="size-full wp-image-38452 " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20180928060637im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/wp-f-sacks-a-20150901.jpg"></noscript><img class="size-full wp-image-38452 lazyload" alt="" width="2280" height="1586" data-sizes="(max-width: 2280px) 100vw, 2280px" data-srcset="/web/20180928060637im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/wp-f-sacks-a-20150901.jpg 2280w, /web/20180928060637im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/wp-f-sacks-a-20150901-380x264.jpg 380w, /web/20180928060637im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/wp-f-sacks-a-20150901-760x529.jpg 760w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20180928060637/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/wp-f-sacks-a-20150901.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">November 26, 2008: Dr. Oliver Sacks receives his Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (CBE), by Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II in a ceremony at Buckingham Palace in London. (Lewis Whyld/PA via AP)</figcaption></figure><p class="p1"><span class="s1">In addition to his books, and articles for medical journals, Sacks also became a frequent contributor to periodicals such as <i>The New York Review of Books</i> and <i>The New Yorker</i>. His opinion was sought on all subjects pertaining to the brain, and many others besides, and his work was valued for its humanity and literary interest. <em>The New York Times</em> dubbed him “the poet laureate of medicine,” and Rockefeller University awarded him its Lewis Thomas Prize, which honors “the scientist as poet.”</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Despite his growing fame, Dr. Sacks continued to see patients, while at the same time writing on an ever-widening range of subjects. Always physically active, Sacks was a prodigious swimmer and an enthusiast of many outdoor activities. He described his own difficult recovery from a mountain climbing accident in <i>A Leg to Stand On</i>. A more serious health problem presented itself in 2006, when Sacks was found to have an ocular melanoma, a cancer of the eye. The treatment he underwent left him with many more productive years, although he lost his sight in one eye. </span></p> <figure id="attachment_38450" style="width: 2280px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><noscript><img class="wp-image-38450 size-full " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20180928060637im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/wp-GettyImages-529458644_master.jpg"></noscript><img class="wp-image-38450 size-full lazyload" title="(The Oliver Sacks Foundation)" alt="(The Oliver Sacks Foundation)" width="2280" height="1710" data-sizes="(max-width: 2280px) 100vw, 2280px" data-srcset="/web/20180928060637im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/wp-GettyImages-529458644_master.jpg 2280w, /web/20180928060637im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/wp-GettyImages-529458644_master-380x285.jpg 380w, /web/20180928060637im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/wp-GettyImages-529458644_master-760x570.jpg 760w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20180928060637/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/wp-GettyImages-529458644_master.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">2010: “In the book <em>The Mind’s Eye,</em> Oliver Sacks tells the stories of people who are able to navigate the world and communicate with others despite losing senses and abilities: the power of speech, the capacity to recognize faces, the sense of three-dimensional space, the ability to read, the sense of sight. For all of these people, the challenge is to adapt to a radically new way of being in the world. Dr. Sacks also tells the story of his own eye cancer and the bizarre and disconcerting effects of losing vision to one side.” (Juergen Frank/Getty/The Oliver Sacks Foundation)</figcaption></figure><p class="p1"><span class="s1">For most of his life, Sacks had found it difficult to form intimate relationships. In 2008, after 35 years of solitude, he finally formed a deep emotional partnership with another author, Bill Hayes, who shared his interest in the history of medicine.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Music had always played a large role in Sacks’s life, and he was fascinated by the role it played in the ailments and recovery of many of his patients, thoughts he shared in his bestseller <i>Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain</i>, published in 2007. That same year he accepted an appointment as Professor of Neurology and Psychiatry at Columbia University Medical Center and was designated the university’s first Columbia University Artist. In 2012 Sacks transferred his academic affiliation to the New York University School of Medicine, and extended his clinical practice to the NYU Comprehensive Epilepsy Center.</span></p> <figure id="attachment_38448" style="width: 960px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><noscript><img class="wp-image-38448 size-full " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20180928060637im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/onthemove_1ha.jpg"></noscript><img class="wp-image-38448 size-full lazyload" title="(The Oliver Sacks Foundation)" alt="(The Oliver Sacks Foundation)" width="960" height="1385" data-sizes="(max-width: 960px) 100vw, 960px" data-srcset="/web/20180928060637im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/onthemove_1ha.jpg 960w, /web/20180928060637im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/onthemove_1ha-263x380.jpg 263w, /web/20180928060637im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/onthemove_1ha-527x760.jpg 527w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20180928060637/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/onthemove_1ha.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">2015: In Dr. Oliver Sacks’s memoir <em>On the Move: A Life,</em> “he recounts his experiences as a young neurologist in the early 1960s, first in California, where he struggled with drug addiction, and then in New York, where he discovered a long-forgotten illness in the back wards of a chronic hospital. We see how his engagement with patients comes to define his life. He writes about his love affairs, both romantic and intellectual; his guilt over leaving his family to come to America; his bond with his schizophrenic brother; and the writers and scientists who influenced him.”</figcaption></figure><p class="p1"><span class="s1">In his later years, Sacks turned increasingly to personal memoir, recounting his experience with ocular melanoma in <i>The Mind’s Eye</i>, and his early pharmaceutical adventures in <i>Hallucinations</i>. In 2015 he published a substantial autobiography, <i>On the Move</i>. The same year, he announced to his readers that his cancer had returned and that there was no course of treatment that could save his life. As death approached, he shared his thoughts on the end of life in the pages of <i>The New York Times</i> and <i>The New Yorker</i>. His last essays were collected in the volume <i>Gratitude</i>. He died at home in New York City at the age of 82.  His partner, Bill Hayes, published a memoir of their life together, <em>Insomnia City: New York, Oliver and Me,</em> in 2017.</span></p></body></html> <div class="clearfix"> </div> </article> </div> </section> </div> <div class="tab-pane fade" id="profile" role="tabpanel"> <section class="clearfix"> <header class="editorial-article__header"> <figure class="text-xs-center"> <img class="inductee-badge" src="/web/20180928060637im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/inducted-badge@2x.png" alt="Inducted Badge" width="120" height="120"/> <figcaption class="serif-3 text-brand-primary"> Inducted in 2000 </figcaption> </figure> </header> <div class="row"> <aside class="col-md-4 sidebar"> <dl class="clearfix m-b-0"> <div class="col-xs-12 sidebar--chunk p-b-2"> <dt class="serif-7">Career</dt> <dd class="sans-2"> <div><a href="/web/20180928060637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/#filter=.neurologist">Neurologist</a></div> <div><a href="/web/20180928060637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/#filter=.writer">Writer</a></div> <div><a href="/web/20180928060637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/#filter=.author">Author</a></div> <div><a href="/web/20180928060637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/#filter=.surgeon-medical-doctor">Surgeon/Medical Doctor</a></div> </dd> </div> <div class="col-xs-12 sidebar--chunk p-b-2"> <dt class="serif-7">Date of Birth</dt> <dd class="sans-2"> July 9, 1933 </dd> </div> <div class="col-xs-12 sidebar--chunk p-b-2"> <dt class="serif-7">Date of Death</dt> <dd class="sans-2"> August 30, 2015 </dd> </div> </dl> </aside> <article class="col-md-8 editorial-article clearfix"> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Dr. Oliver Sacks was a practicing clinical neurologist and author, renowned for his fascinating true-life reports from the mysterious frontiers of neurological experience. Born and raised in London, he spent most of his life in New York City as a consulting neurologist for hospitals and nursing homes. There he treated men and women suffering from every possible disorder of the brain and nervous system, from well-known disorders such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s to baffling conditions in which selective brain and motor functions would be completely impaired while other faculties would be unaffected or developed to a high degree.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">He drew on his vast collection of case histories in a series of bestselling books, including <i>Awakenings</i> and <i>The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat</i>. Readers, critics and fellow writers were enthralled by the extraordinary symptoms he reported, and the depth of human insight and feeling he brought to his cases.</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s2">Cherished by both his readers and his patients, he won even greater admiration for the courage and equanimity with which he confronted his own approaching death from cancer. He spent his last years producing remarkably frank and lucid memoirs and reflections on an altogether extraordinary life. </span></p> </article> </div> </section> </div> <div class="tab-pane fade" id="interview" role="tabpanel"> <section class="clearfix"> <div class="col-md-12 interview-feature-video"> <figure> <div class="embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"> <iframe class="embed-responsive-item embed-responsive--has-thumbnail" width="200" height="150" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20180928060637if_/https://www.youtube.com/embed/gMUc-1z2gro?feature=oembed&autohide=1&hd=1&color=white&modestbranding=1&rel=0&showinfo=0&theme=light" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <div class="embed-responsive__thumbnail ratio-container__image lazyload" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Sacks-Oliver-2000-MasterEdit.00_14_21_02.Still003-380x214.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Sacks-Oliver-2000-MasterEdit.00_14_21_02.Still003-760x428.jpg"></div> <div class="video-tag sans-4"> <i class="embed-responsive__play icon-icon_play-full text-brand-primary"></i> <div class="video-tag__text">Watch full interview</div> </div> </div> </figure> </div> <header class="col-md-12 text-xs-center m-b-2"> <i class="icon-icon_bio text-brand-primary"></i> </header> <aside class="col-md-4 sidebar"> <h2 class="serif-3 achiever--biography-subtitle">The Poet Laureate of Medicine</h2> <div class="sans-2">Scottsdale, Arizona</div> <div class="sans-2">June 17, 2000</div> </aside> <article class="editorial-article col-md-8">   <div class="achiever__interview-copy"> <p><strong>One of your first books to attract widespread attention was <em>Awakenings</em>, in which you discussed your experience working with some very unusual patients you met at a hospital in the Bronx. Could you describe those patients for us, and what happened to them?</strong></p> </div>     <div class="achiever__video-block"> <figure class="achiever__interview-video"> <div class="embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"> <iframe class="embed-responsive-item embed-responsive--has-thumbnail" width="200" height="150" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20180928060637if_/https://www.youtube.com/embed/cEUeTpA1c3Q?feature=oembed&autohide=1&hd=1&color=white&modestbranding=1&rel=0&showinfo=0&theme=light" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <div class="embed-responsive__thumbnail ratio-container__image lazyload" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Sacks-Oliver-2000-MasterEdit.00_22_28_25.Still011-380x214.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Sacks-Oliver-2000-MasterEdit.00_22_28_25.Still011-760x428.jpg"></div> <i class="embed-responsive__play icon-icon_play-full text-brand-primary"></i> </div> </figure>  <div class="achiever__interview-video__copy"> <p>Oliver Sacks: I still go to the hospital. About 34 years ago, when I went there in ’66, as soon as I entered the hospital, I was struck by strange, motionless, transfixed figures, some of them in very odd positions, standing in the lobby and the passages. I had never seen anyone like this. I’d seen catatonic patients on the back wards, but this was obviously something different. And I was very amazed and horrified when I found that some of these patients had been there for 30 or 40 years — the hospital had been opened in 1920 for these first victims of the epidemic “sleepy sickness,” the <i>encephalitis lethargica</i> — and that medicine and surgery apparently could do nothing for these patients and that, further, many of them had been dumped there by their relatives, or their relatives had died, and in effect, they had been abandoned and had been out of the world for decades. I had never really heard of this sort of situation. There’d been very few accounts of such patients, although one account referred to them rather dismissively as “extinct volcanoes.” But you know, the nurses and others who knew them well — and I came to feel this myself — were convinced that there were intact minds and personalities inside these petrified bodies.</p> </div> </div>      <div class="achiever__interview-copy"> <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd"> <html><body><figure id="attachment_38468" style="width: 2280px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><noscript><img class="wp-image-38468 size-full " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20180928060637im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/wp-GettyImages-3244263.jpg"></noscript><img class="wp-image-38468 size-full lazyload" alt="" width="2280" height="2305" data-sizes="(max-width: 2280px) 100vw, 2280px" data-srcset="/web/20180928060637im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/wp-GettyImages-3244263.jpg 2280w, /web/20180928060637im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/wp-GettyImages-3244263-376x380.jpg 376w, /web/20180928060637im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/wp-GettyImages-3244263-752x760.jpg 752w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20180928060637/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/wp-GettyImages-3244263.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">1993: Dr. Oliver Sacks in the admittance driveway of Beth Abraham Hospital in New York City. “In 1966, Dr. Sacks began working as a consulting neurologist for Beth Abraham Hospital, a chronic care hospital where he encountered an extraordinary group of patients, many of whom had spent decades in strange, frozen states, like human statues, unable to initiate movement. He recognized these patients as survivors of the great pandemic of sleeping sickness that had swept the world from 1916 to 1927, and treated them with L-DOPA, which enabled them to come back to life. They became the subjects of his bestselling book <em> Awakenings</em>.” (Schiff/Getty Images)</figcaption></figure><p><strong>You once used the expression “dormant volcanoes.”</strong></p></body></html> </div>     <div class="achiever__video-block"> <figure class="achiever__interview-video"> <div class="embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"> <iframe class="embed-responsive-item embed-responsive--has-thumbnail" width="200" height="150" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20180928060637if_/https://www.youtube.com/embed/ogNzu_rpV8Q?feature=oembed&autohide=1&hd=1&color=white&modestbranding=1&rel=0&showinfo=0&theme=light" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <div class="embed-responsive__thumbnail ratio-container__image lazyload" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Sacks-Oliver-2000-MasterEdit.00_11_36_21.Still001-380x214.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Sacks-Oliver-2000-MasterEdit.00_11_36_21.Still001-760x428.jpg"></div> <i class="embed-responsive__play icon-icon_play-full text-brand-primary"></i> </div> </figure>  <div class="achiever__interview-video__copy"> <p>Oliver Sacks: I wondered whether these people, rather than being extinct volcanoes, might be dormant, and whether both the possibilities of health and of disease in a way were smoldering in them. So what would happen if you uncapped them? And also, what would it be like for someone whose life had been severely dislocated with a discontinuity — for better or worse, we live our lives from day to day and year to year. We can’t imagine this sort of suspension. What would it be like for these people if they did awaken, if they did come to? And I hesitated for two years before I tried any medication. There were astounding things. One patient especially stays in my mind. She was actually made the subject of a play by Harold Pinter. But when she came to, she was tremendously animated, but in a strange way. She had the speech and the gestures of a young woman from the 1920s. She looked like a flapper come to life. She spoke about Gershwin as if he were still alive. And I wondered where she was, and I asked her some questions. She was a very bright, quick woman, and she said, “I know the date of Kennedy’s assassination.” She said, “I know the date of Pearl Harbor.” She spoke of these things as sort of flashbulb memories, but she indicated there’d been no coherent — no sense of coherent living. She says, “I know it’s 1969,” she said, “but I feel it’s 1926. I know I’m 64, but I feel I’m 21.” And in some sense, she had dropped through a vacuum from the 1920s to the 1960s, from her 20s to her 60s. She said she didn’t like our world very much. She said that everything which had had meaning for her had vanished, and after ten days of this strange 1920-ish animation, she went back into the state she had been before, and nothing we could do. You know, this wasn’t the case for most of the patients, but I think with her, the challenge of coming into an alien world and an unfamiliar world, making a new identity, was too great. So I mean the awakening was as much an existential as a medical. On the one hand, there was all the physiological side effects of this and that. I think some of the relatively short action of the medication, and some of the way in which it activated other symptoms — well, this was one set of problems. But the other was to be reactivated, to be awakened and put back into operation after being out of operation for 40 years and feeling oneself sort of outmoded.</p> </div> </div>      <div class="achiever__interview-copy"> <p><strong>How did you come to think that L-DOPA would have an effect on these patients?</strong></p> </div>     <div class="achiever__video-block"> <figure class="achiever__interview-video"> <div class="embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"> <iframe class="embed-responsive-item embed-responsive--has-thumbnail" width="200" height="150" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20180928060637if_/https://www.youtube.com/embed/e4kCpqvUG6A?feature=oembed&autohide=1&hd=1&color=white&modestbranding=1&rel=0&showinfo=0&theme=light" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <div class="embed-responsive__thumbnail ratio-container__image lazyload" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Sacks-Oliver-2000-MasterEdit.00_19_51_15.Still005-380x214.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Sacks-Oliver-2000-MasterEdit.00_19_51_15.Still005-760x428.jpg"></div> <i class="embed-responsive__play icon-icon_play-full text-brand-primary"></i> </div> </figure>  <div class="achiever__interview-video__copy"> <p>Oliver Sacks: There had been an account in early 1967 of the effects of L-DOPA on people with ordinary Parkinson’s disease, and it was touted as a sort of miracle drug. Now one of my patients — in fact, the original Leonard L., who was somewhat different from the movie version, a very bright man — he was the one who drew my attention to this, and he spoke of dopamine, the neurotransmitter needed in the brain, as “resurrectamine.” He spoke of Cotzias, the physician who had introduced L-DOPA, as “the chemical messiah.” You know, one sees the depth of intelligence and hope and irony and desperation here. Well, my patients did have Parkinsonian — sort of clinical features of Parkinsonism — but they didn’t have ordinary Parkinson’s disease. I’m sorry, this sounds a little confusing. But Parkinsonism for them was part of a much more complex, strange, long-standing disease. And because of the complexity of the disease and its duration, I didn’t know how L-DOPA would — how they would do with L-DOPA. I think it couldn’t be known.</p> </div> </div>      <div class="achiever__interview-copy"> <p><strong>What was it like when the patients started declining after they had this amazing recovery? How did you deal with that yourself?</strong></p> </div>     <div class="achiever__video-block"> <figure class="achiever__interview-video"> <div class="embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"> <iframe class="embed-responsive-item embed-responsive--has-thumbnail" width="200" height="150" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20180928060637if_/https://www.youtube.com/embed/B9emGb8mLcA?feature=oembed&autohide=1&hd=1&color=white&modestbranding=1&rel=0&showinfo=0&theme=light" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <div class="embed-responsive__thumbnail ratio-container__image lazyload" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Sacks-Oliver-2000-MasterEdit.00_19_51_16.Still010-380x214.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Sacks-Oliver-2000-MasterEdit.00_19_51_16.Still010-760x428.jpg"></div> <i class="embed-responsive__play icon-icon_play-full text-brand-primary"></i> </div> <figcaption class="achiever__interview-video-terms"> <span>Keys to success —</span> <a class="comma-item" href="/web/20180928060637/http://www.achievement.org/keys-to-success/perseverance/">Perseverance</a> </figcaption> </figure>  <div class="achiever__interview-video__copy"> <p>Oliver Sacks: When the patients started declining, I felt bewildered, anxious, sometimes guilty. I didn’t know what was happening. I tried all sorts of ways of restoring or retrieving the original response, and at the same time, I think, of perhaps preparing patients for what might be some continuing — but now only partial and less dramatic — response. I think finally it was probably accepted by all of us that some sort of decline was perhaps a physiological necessity, maybe associated with the amount of damage there had been to the nervous system and the fact that one was perhaps trying to stimulate the one or two percent of cells which remained in certain systems to do the whole job. Contrary to the movie, which, in a way, shows everything as ending in ’69, many of the patients made accommodations, and some of them lived 15 or 20 years afterwards, at least with sort of a partial animation. But it was a — you know, as the person who gave the L-DOPA, I tended to be invested by them almost with too much hope and power, and then they got angry with me or whatever. One of the patients said that L-DOPA had become “Hell-dopa.” A very, very complex business. Morally complex, medically complex.</p> </div> </div>      <div class="achiever__interview-copy"> <p><strong>What do you mean?</strong></p> <p>Oliver Sacks: The medical life is very complex, and it is maybe sometimes these existential and ethical complexities which make me look back wistfully, as it were, to the days of physics and chemistry, when there were all sorts of intellectual challenges and sometimes torments, but not quite these particular existential or ethical ones.</p> </div>     <div class="achiever__interview-copy"> <p><strong>These recoveries must have seemed like miracles at first, although we’ve heard you say you don’t believe in the supernatural.</strong></p> </div>     <div class="achiever__video-block"> <figure class="achiever__interview-video"> <div class="embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"> <iframe class="embed-responsive-item embed-responsive--has-thumbnail" width="200" height="150" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20180928060637if_/https://www.youtube.com/embed/7tmhMsXFiF8?feature=oembed&autohide=1&hd=1&color=white&modestbranding=1&rel=0&showinfo=0&theme=light" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <div class="embed-responsive__thumbnail ratio-container__image lazyload" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Sacks-Oliver-2000-MasterEdit.00_20_03_13.Still006-380x214.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Sacks-Oliver-2000-MasterEdit.00_20_03_13.Still006-760x428.jpg"></div> <i class="embed-responsive__play icon-icon_play-full text-brand-primary"></i> </div> </figure>  <div class="achiever__interview-video__copy"> <p>Oliver Sacks: One of my fellow speakers, who has done and is doing beautiful major work in genetics, and has a fine scientific mind, also said that he spoke of his belief in a caring personal God and the supernatural. And he said that he saw no incompatibility between these modes of thought or forms of belief. They didn’t seem to be in two compartments of his mind. And there’s something about the reiteration of the word “supernatural” which made me take issue with him and explode a little bit. And I said that, for me, I thought there was and always had been an incompatibility between a belief in the natural world and anything else. Indeed, I could not imagine a supernatural world, and that I thought any belief in the supernatural was similar to a belief in the occult, and therefore, that I found what he said, in a sense, unintelligible. I think I also — I forget exactly what I said in the heat of the moment — I also said that for myself, beside scientific interests, I had a passionate feeling for music and for art and for the beautiful, and sometimes for the sublime, and that I thought that I had experienced feelings of the sacred and the holy and the religious. And yet, for me, this was all part of being a human being and of the natural world. And I couldn’t imagine — I didn’t see the sense of positing anything supernatural, although I saw why it might be done. I think I also indicated — or I wanted to indicate — my respect for believers. Amongst other things, I work in an Orthodox Jewish hospital and also an orthodox Catholic hospital. And I never — I usually don’t take issue with people. I feel it’s partly their business. But since this actually came up before an audience, I did take issue with it.</p> </div> </div>     <aside class="collapse" id="full-interview">    <div class="achiever__interview-copy"> <p><strong>What books were important to you in your childhood and early years? Do any books stand out for you?</strong></p> <p>Oliver Sacks: I like Dickens. I think the first big book I ever read was <em>A Tale of Two Cities</em>, and the first piece I ever wrote was called “Recalled to Life,” which, of course, is the title of a section in <em>A Tale of Two Cities</em>. I loved Dickens’s London, and I think the London I grew up in still sort of had many Dickensian streets and scenes and feelings about it. I was very fond of H.G. Wells, especially the early stories. And, yes, H.G. Wells especially, and I think even now, 55 or 60 years later, some of H.G. Wells’s images and metaphors come to me. When I visited the Island of the Color Blind, I thought vividly of H.G. Wells as sort of the country of the blind. I liked <em>Alice in Wonderland</em>, but I also liked a charming book called <em>Mr. Tompkins in Wonderland</em>, and this was written by George Gamow, a physicist. He tries to bring relativity and quantum theory to life by imagining, say, that the velocity of light is only ten miles an hour, so then bicycles become flattened by relativistic contraction and the quantum is so large that it becomes visible. So I think probably the point at which science and imaginative literature came together always pleased me.</p> <p><strong>Did you like to read biographies?</strong></p> <p>Oliver Sacks: The first biography I read — I think the first scientific biography — was <em>Madame Curie</em>. And my mother, who was a surgeon, worked at the Marie Curie Hospital. She’d met Marie Curie, who was one of her great heroines. And reading the book, I think, was the first portrait of a scientist and the romance of a scientific life. It was something which was a great pleasure rather recently; there was a century celebration of the Curies’ discovery of polonium and radium. And I mentioned this book and how important it had been for me, and as I did so, I saw an old, old lady beaming in the audience. And I looked; she had high Slavic cheekbones. Anyhow, this was Eve Curie, who had written the book. So she came and signed it for me 65, 60 years later.</p> <p><strong>How old is she now?</strong></p> <p>Oliver Sacks: She’s in her mid-90s. And this just gave a wonderful sense of historical reality. I’ve never liked textbooks very much. I always wanted to read biographies, original accounts, letters, journals. I wanted to try and feel and imagine what the discoverer was doing. Oh, and I love travel books. I love sort of Captain Crook’s travels and all the travels.</p> <p><strong>Your father was also a physician, wasn’t he?</strong></p> <p>Oliver Sacks: Yes. My father was a general practitioner, and when he was 90, we pressed him to retire, at least to stop the house calls. And he said that he’d give up everything else, but he’d keep the house calls. But as a boy, I used to go with him on his house calls, and I partly now regard my life as house calls in a sense. I don’t think you can get any idea of what people are like by just seeing them as a sort of abstracted specimen in a clinic or hospital. You need to see them at home.</p> <p><strong>Isn’t that something? It’s sad that even before the coming of the HMO revolution, house calls had fallen by the wayside to a great degree.</strong></p> <p>Oliver Sacks: Oh, absolutely. Well, certainly here. The general practitioner hasn’t existed here for 50 years. But he exists in England, he exists in Australia, he exists in Canada. I think he’s needed, and I think he’s going to come back here.</p> <p><strong>Talk about the London of your youth and some of the turbulence that you and your family experienced there.</strong></p> <p>Oliver Sacks: I didn’t experience or notice much turbulence until 1939 when the war broke out. I was just six. And before that, I think there may have been a somewhat pampered existence. My parents were both busy, but the house was sort of — I had my elder brothers, and there were nurses and nannies and cooks and others. But then when the war broke out, I was evacuated and sent away from the family like three or four million other children. And I spent four years at a boarding school in the country, probably a rather abusive boarding school, and seeing very little of my parents, and that was a very bad time for me. A bad and almost a mad time. When I came back to London when I was just ten, I developed a violent passion for chemistry, as you see from my tie, and in general, the physical sciences, where things seemed to be orderly and predictable in a way in which human beings weren’t. Although this was also, to some extent, in my family, because although my parents were doctors, my mother was the 16th of 18 children, and seven of her nine brothers were chemists or geologists or mineralogists. And so there was a strong feeling for physical science. And two of my uncles, one a chemist and one a physicist, were crucially important for me in those post-evacuation years, between about ten and 13. And I found those years blissful. I was out of the hell of evacuation, and I hadn’t yet entered the turmoil of adolescence and of deciding what to do in life. And it was also a period of playfulness. I was doing classics at school, but the interest in science was something secret and private. And later, when I did science at school, I didn’t enjoy it nearly as much. In general, I didn’t enjoy school. I enjoyed museums, botanical gardens, libraries, laboratories, where one was immediately in contact with — I’m not fond of schools and textbooks.</p> <p><strong>You wanted to be directly involved?</strong></p> <p>Oliver Sacks: Absolutely, and in a sort of unmediated way almost.</p> <p><strong>What did your parents do during the war?</strong></p> <p>Oliver Sacks: My mother was an emergency surgeon in the war, and my father was also very busy. And we, their sons, had been sort of scattered around, and travel wasn’t that easy. In retrospect, there was probably a psychological error here, but parents were put under great pressure by the government to send their children to safety. And it worked out very well for some people.</p> <p><strong>What price do you think you might have paid because of that experience personally?</strong></p> <p>Oliver Sacks: I think that some sort of trust, and ability for closeness, may have been compromised. And I think I’ve perhaps, to some extent, sort of kept a distance since that time, although this is not a distance I feel with my patients or my students. I think I can be sort of very close there in the context of a professional relationship. But I think something about bonding and belonging can be affected by this. But I think I’ve also been very lucky, both with people and with interests and things. Nonetheless, I think it’s been a rich life.</p> <p><strong>There seems to be a solitary quality to your work. Other than the fact that you’re dealing with patients all the time, do you have a need for solitude?</strong></p> <p>Oliver Sacks: Perhaps so. Although I’m on staff at universities, I don’t have that much to do with my colleagues. I see patients by myself. I write by myself. But there are often very intense relationships with patients. But I do think of it as partly a solitary enterprise. And I’m sympathetic to other solitary enterprises. One of my scientific heroes in the old days was Faraday, and I sort of love reading his journals and having the feeling of just this man, in love with his subject, intimate with his subject, and not being pulled into collegial relationships. He wasn’t hostile, he wasn’t competitive, but I think in some deep sense he was a loner. And I think this may be true of me as well, for better or worse. Better <em>and</em> worse.</p> <p><strong>We interviewed Dr. Frank Sulloway, who believes birth order plays a large role in personality development. Were you the youngest?</strong></p> <p>Oliver Sacks: Yes. I’m the youngest of four, for what that’s worth.</p> <p><strong>Do you think that had an effect on you?</strong></p> <p>Oliver Sacks: I think, with my two older brothers being ten years older, and being separated from my brothers, I think to some extent I have the feeling of being an only child. I don’t easily form fraternal relationships.</p> <p><strong>Sulloway thought younger children in the family were more likely to rebel against the status quo. Were you rebellious as a younger person?</strong></p> <p>Oliver Sacks: Was I rebellious? No. I think I was probably too compliant, although when compliance became intolerable, I exploded. So I think there have been alternations of compliance and explosion. Mostly, I don’t like either term. I would like to think that some quiet, strong, calm autonomy is possible, which is neither compliant nor defiant. Being oneself, I think, is what one struggles to be or become all one’s life. I think this is partly why I came to the States 40 years ago, because it was a new place, it was empty. Besides my three medical sibs and my medical parents, I had like 90 first cousins on my mother’s side. So there was too much family. I needed to get to a less populated space.</p> <p><strong>We’ve read that you saw the periodic table when you were a kid, and it really had an impact on you. Can you talk about that?</strong></p> <p>Oliver Sacks: I saw it soon after I had come back from this chaotic and really awful period in the country. And the periodic table, with its arrangement of all the elements in a sort of beautiful vertical and horizontal way, seemed to me a wonderful — I mean, although I knew the periodic table was a human invention, I thought, “This is the way the elements organize themselves. This is the way God thinks. This is a cosmic order.” And the beauty of the table and the sense of it affected me greatly. It corresponded with everything in chemistry. Of course one didn’t know why the elements should have the characters they did or why they should be related. Mendeleyev, who made the table, didn’t know, but I was sure that things would be confirmed later, as of course they were. But the periodic table stands for me for, as it were, the beauty of scientific truth and scientific construction, and also the beauty of the natural world and the way in which simplicity and number at least seem to command the physical world.</p> <p><strong>Where were you when you saw it first?</strong></p> <p>Oliver Sacks: I’m sure that I’d seen it in books, but the one which stays in my mind was the big periodic table in the science museum in London, which was a huge mahogany table. It had samples of all the elements. And I love stuff. I love chunks of metal and seeing the great chunk of bismuth and iridium and the yellow crystals of sulfur and the sort of waxy phosphorous and iodine subliming at the top of the bottle. So that was a most joyous epiphany, I think, in the science museum. I loved museums. I spent all the time I could in the science museum, the geology, the natural history museum and Kew Gardens. I fear for museums now becoming too jazzy and interactive. I think they need to be places of quietness where you can just feel at home. You’re under no pressure or forced to interact.</p> <p><strong>When did you first start thinking about becoming a physician yourself?</strong></p> <p>Oliver Sacks: I think you used the term “defiance.” I think I may have both somehow accepted that I would be, but fought against the notion from an early age. But certainly, on the way, I very much wanted to be a physical scientist. A chemist first, and then I very much wanted to be a marine biologist. And then I very much wanted to be a physiologist. And rather belatedly and reluctantly I sort of became a physician. But when I did, I somehow realized it was what, in a way, I had been moving towards all the while. Yet I’m glad that I made the long journey of wonder through the physical sciences and biology. So I think it wasn’t an immediate sort of bleeding heart feeling, although obviously sympathy and empathy are there, but I think somehow a journey of wonder which finally came to people.</p> <p><strong>If you were writing a description of your career to someone who has never heard of it before, what would you say makes it so compelling for you to study the brain.</strong></p> <p>Oliver Sacks: My way of studying the brain, as a clinical neurologist, is not to stick electrodes in it or to do brain imaging — although, of course, these may be necessary — but to see the impact of various diseases, various forms of damage on the person. One can learn a tremendous — one sees a tremendous amount this way. For example, although we get a sort of seamless picture of the world, there are 40 or 50 sub-systems, visual sub-systems, and one would have no idea of their existence were it not that one or two of them might be knocked out. Someone might become totally color blind or motion blind or something else. So on the one hand, I plot the person’s ability to construct a world, a visual world, a moral world, whatever — intellectual world — on the basis of their brain functions and their compromise. But equally, I’m very much concerned with peoples’ ability to continue life, or to renew themselves or to reconstruct themselves and their lives in other ways, so that even if, let us say, color vision is lost, the black and white world can then become heightened and enhanced. And there may be a heightened sense of contour and boundary and texture and tone and movement and depth and everything else. So for me, this is a way of seeing how people and brains construct worlds and construct selves.</p> <p><strong>That’s a fascinating way to put it. When you decided to go into this field, how did your parents react? </strong></p> <p>Oliver Sacks: I think my parents were puzzled. When I finished my training, and I was 32, I went into a chronic disease hospital — institution. And I think my parents were both rather surprised at that, because their contact had especially been with patients in the real world. But at that point, I think I needed to see people who had spent much of their lives in institutions of this sort. I think when I got deeper and deeper into contact with my <em>Awakenings</em> patients, they saw that this was a different sort of medicine. Different from theirs, but romantic in its own way, dedicated in its own way. So I think they were sort of worried. I remember when my first book came out — <em>Migraine</em> — on the day of publication, my father burst into the room. He was trembling. He was ashen. He was holding <em>The Times</em> of London. He says, “There’s an article about you in the newspaper. There’s an article about the book.” And although the article was a very nice article and sort of said kind things about the book, my father was actually somewhat shocked, because the notion was that, as a doctor, you should have a low profile. You shouldn’t publish. And for years after that, I always misread the word “publishable” as “punishable.” There was quite a lot of ambivalence, and again, I wasn’t sure myself of the proprieties of telling the stories of my patients. Even though I would get formal consent, this involves an exposure or a disclosure. I’ve had this concern all the time, but I can only hope that if one writes with appreciation and delicacy and respect, then it’s okay. I have to say that I’ve written a hundred times as much as I’ve published, because if there’s any thought of offense or embarrassment, then I will put the thing quietly away.</p> <p><strong>You’ve certainly been very prolific as a writer.</strong></p> <p>Oliver Sacks: Well, I don’t know whether I’m prolific or not. I have sudden sort of convulsive periods where I write very quickly and then dry periods when I don’t. And one writes different things. I’ve always liked keeping journals. Recently I was in Mexico with a botanical expedition. Botany was one of my old loves. All of the old loves seem to be coming up: the chemistry, the botany, the mineralogy. And I kept a journal there. I think journals basically are my form, my genre. They are the stories of journeys, whether they’re physical journeys, clinical journeys, intellectual journeys, nautical journeys, whatever it is. They were my earliest reading and writing, and I think they continue.</p> <p><strong>Thank you very much. </strong></p> <p>Oliver Sacks: Thank <em>you</em>.</p> </div>  </aside>  <div class="read-more__toggle collapsed" data-toggle="collapse" data-target="#full-interview"><a href="#" class="sans-4 btn">Read full interview</a></div> </article> </section> </div> <div class="tab-pane fade" id="gallery" role="tabpanel"> <section class="isotope-wrapper">  <header class="toolbar toolbar--gallery bg-white clearfix"> <div class="col-md-6"> <div class="serif-4">Oliver Sacks, M.D. Gallery</div> </div> <div class="col-md-6 text-md-right isotope-toolbar"> <ul class="list-unstyled list-inline m-b-0 text-brand-primary sans-4"> <li class="list-inline-item" data-filter=".photo"><i class="icon-icon_camera"></i>13 photos</li> </ul> </div> </header> <div class="isotope-gallery isotope-box single-achiever__gallery clearfix"> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.79342105263158" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/wp-2000-Summit-Scottsdale-AZ-Oliver-Sacks-on-panel.jpg" data-image-caption="Academy Council member and geneticist Dr. Francis S. Collins moderates a science symposium panel with Academy members: paleontologist Dr. Jack Horner, paleoanthropologist Dr. Donald C. Johanson, theoretical physicist Dr. Freeman Dyson, computer scientist and inventor Dr. Marvin Minsky, neurologist and bestselling author Dr. Oliver Sacks, and Egyptologist Kent Weeks during the 2000 Achievement Summit in Scottsdale, Arizona. (© Academy of Achievement)" data-image-copyright="wp-2000-Summit-Scottsdale,-AZ----Oliver-Sacks-on-panel" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/wp-2000-Summit-Scottsdale-AZ-Oliver-Sacks-on-panel-380x301.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2017/05/wp-2000-Summit-Scottsdale-AZ-Oliver-Sacks-on-panel-760x603.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="1.0106382978723" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/wp-GettyImages-3244263.jpg" data-image-caption="1993: Dr. Oliver Sacks standing in the admittance driveway of Beth Abraham Hospital in New York City. (Photo by Nancy R. Schiff/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)" data-image-copyright="Dr Oliver Sacks" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/wp-GettyImages-3244263-376x380.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2017/05/wp-GettyImages-3244263-752x760.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.66710526315789" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/wp-OUT67565420.jpg" data-image-caption="Dr. Oliver Sacks" data-image-copyright="wp-OUT67565420" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/wp-OUT67565420-380x253.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2017/05/wp-OUT67565420-760x507.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="1.3286713286713" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/wp-OUT068426.jpg" data-image-caption="2001: In <i>Uncle Tungsten</i>, Sacks invokes his childhood in wartime England and his early scientific fascination with light, matter and energy. The “Uncle Tungsten” of the book’s title is Sacks’s Uncle Dave, who manufactured light bulbs with filaments of fine tungsten wire, and who first initiated Sacks into the mysteries of metals. Sacks describes his four torturous years at boarding school during the war, where he was sent to escape the bombings, and his profound inquisitiveness cultivated by living in a household steeped in learning, religion and politics (both his parents were doctors and his aunts were ardent Zionists). (Image by © Erica Berger/Corbis)" data-image-copyright="Dr. Oliver Sacks" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/wp-OUT068426-286x380.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2017/05/wp-OUT068426-572x760.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="1.2709030100334" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/wp-OUT917050.jpg" data-image-caption="Circa 2001: Oliver Sacks seated next to his collection of elements and in front of his Periodic Table of Elements. In 2015, in a piece for <i>The New York Times</i>, he wrote, "When I was sent away to a boarding school as a child of six, at the outset of the Second World War, numbers became my friends; when I returned to London at ten, the elements and the periodic table became my companions. Times of stress throughout my life have led me to turn, or return, to the physical sciences, a world where there is no life, but also no death." (Jurgen Frank/Corbis Outline)" data-image-copyright="Oliver Sacks" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/wp-OUT917050-299x380.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2017/05/wp-OUT917050-598x760.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="1.5415821501014" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Awakenings_Image-courtesy-of-Vintage.jpg" data-image-caption="1973: <i>Awakenings</i> is the remarkable account of a group of patients who contracted sleeping sickness during the great epidemic just after World War I. Frozen in a decades-long sleep, these men and women were given up as hopeless until 1969, when Dr. Sacks gave them the then-new drug L-DOPA, which had an astonishing, explosive, “awakening” effect. Dr. Sacks recounts the moving case histories of these individuals, the stories of their lives, and the extraordinary transformations they underwent with treatment. This book was the inspiration for the 1990 film starring Robert De Niro, and Robin Williams as Dr. Sacks." data-image-copyright="Awakenings_Image-courtesy-of-Vintage" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Awakenings_Image-courtesy-of-Vintage-247x380.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Awakenings_Image-courtesy-of-Vintage-493x760.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.69605263157895" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/wp-f-sacks-a-20150901.jpg" data-image-caption="November 26, 2008: Dr. Oliver Sacks, left, receives his Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE), by Britain's Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace in London. Sacks, whose books probed distant ranges of human experience by compassionately portraying people with severe and sometimes bizarre neurological conditions, died Sunday, August 30, 2015 at his home in New York City. He was 82. (Lewis Whyld/PA via AP)" data-image-copyright="Obit Oliver Sacks" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/wp-f-sacks-a-20150901-380x264.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2017/05/wp-f-sacks-a-20150901-760x529.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="1.5447154471545" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/themanwhomistookhiswifeforahat_hr.jpg" data-image-caption="1985: In his bestselling book <i>The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat</i>, Dr. Sacks recounts the case histories of patients lost in the bizarre, apparently inescapable world of neurological disorders: people afflicted with fantastic perceptual and intellectual aberrations; patients who have lost their memories and with them the greater part of their pasts; who are no longer able to recognize people and common objects; who are stricken with violent tics and grimaces or who shout involuntary obscenities; whose limbs have become alien; who have been dismissed as retarded yet are gifted with uncanny artistic or mathematical talents." data-image-copyright="themanwhomistookhiswifeforahat_hr" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/themanwhomistookhiswifeforahat_hr-246x380.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2017/05/themanwhomistookhiswifeforahat_hr-492x760.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.75" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/wp-GettyImages-529458644_master.jpg" data-image-caption="2010: In his book <i>The Mind’s Eye</i>, Oliver Sacks tells the stories of people who are able to navigate the world and communicate with others despite losing what many of us consider indispensable senses and abilities: the power of speech, the capacity to recognize faces, the sense of three-dimensional space, the ability to read, the sense of sight. For all of these people, the challenge is to adapt to a radically new way of being in the world. Dr. Sacks tells the story of his own eye cancer and the bizarre and disconcerting effects of losing vision to one side. (Photo by Juergen Frank/Corbis via Getty Images)" data-image-copyright="Oliver Sacks" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/wp-GettyImages-529458644_master-380x285.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2017/05/wp-GettyImages-529458644_master-760x570.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.66973684210526" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/wp-GettyImages-50542507_master.jpg" data-image-caption="1986: Dr. Sacks outside his childhood home in Cricklewood, Northwest London, England. After <i>The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat</i>, Sacks wrote <i>Seeing Voices</i> (1989), <i>An Anthropologist on Mars</i> (1995), and <i>The Island of the Colorblind</i> (1997). (Photo by Sahm Doherty/The LIFE Images Collection/Getty Images)" data-image-copyright="Oliver Sacks" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/wp-GettyImages-50542507_master-380x255.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2017/05/wp-GettyImages-50542507_master-760x509.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="1.4421252371917" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/onthemove_1ha.jpg" data-image-caption="2015: "From its opening pages on his youthful obsession with motorcycles and speed, <i>On the Move: A Life</i> is infused with his restless energy. As he recounts his experiences as a young neurologist in the early 1960s, first in California, where he struggled with drug addiction, and then in New York, where he discovered a long-forgotten illness in the back wards of a chronic hospital, we see how his engagement with patients comes to define his life. With unbridled honesty and humor, Sacks shows us that the same energy that drives his physical passions — weightlifting and swimming —also drives his cerebral passions."" data-image-copyright="onthemove_1ha" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/onthemove_1ha-263x380.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2017/05/onthemove_1ha-527x760.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="1.5169660678643" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/oliver-sacks-autobiography-memoir-five-seconds-my-own-life-01.jpg" data-image-caption="Oliver Sacks was born in 1933 and lived in a fairly Orthodox Jewish community in Cricklewood, in Northwest London. His mother was a surgeon and his father a general practitioner." data-image-copyright="oliver-sacks-autobiography-memoir-five-seconds-my-own-life-01" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/oliver-sacks-autobiography-memoir-five-seconds-my-own-life-01-250x380.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2017/04/oliver-sacks-autobiography-memoir-five-seconds-my-own-life-01-501x760.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="1" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/sacks-oliver-001a.jpg" data-image-caption="Dr. Oliver Sacks" data-image-copyright="sacks-oliver-001a" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/sacks-oliver-001a-380x380.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2017/03/sacks-oliver-001a.jpg"></div>  </figure>    </div> </section> </div> </div> <div class="container"> <footer class="editorial-article__footer col-md-8 col-md-offset-4"> <div class="editorial-article__next-link sans-3"> <a href="#"><strong>What's next:</strong> <span class="editorial-article__next-link-title">profile</span></a> </div> <ul class="social list-unstyled list-inline ssk-group m-b-0"> <li class="list-inline-item"><a href="" class="ssk ssk-facebook" data-gtm-category="social" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Shared Achiever on Facebook"><i class="icon-icon_facebook-circle"></i></a></li> <li class="list-inline-item"><a href="" class="ssk ssk-twitter" data-gtm-category="social" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Shared Achiever on Twitter"><i class="icon-icon_twitter-circle"></i></a></li>  <li class="list-inline-item"><a href="" class="ssk ssk-email" data-gtm-category="social" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Shared Achiever via Email"><i class="icon-icon_email-circle"></i></a></li> </ul> <time class="editorial-article__last-updated sans-6">This page last revised on March 22, 2018</time> <div class="sans-4"><a href="/web/20180928060637/http://www.achievement.org/how-to-cite" target="_blank">How to cite this page</a></div> </footer> </div> <div class="container interview-related-achievers"> <hr class="m-t-3 m-b-3"/> <footer class="clearfix small-blocks text-xs-center"> <h3 class="m-b-3 serif-3">If you are inspired by this achiever’s story, you might also enjoy:</h3> <div class="centered-blocks"> <div class="isotope-achiever science-exploration racism-discrimination curious ambitious analytical work-in-medicine " data-year-inducted="1999" data-achiever-name="Black"> <div class="achiever-block view-grid"> <a href="/web/20180928060637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/keith-l-black/"> <figure class="ratio-container ratio-container--square bg-black"> <div class="lazyload box achiever-block__image" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/bla1-001a-190x190.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/03/bla1-001a-380x380.jpg"></div> <div class="achiever-block__overlay"></div> <figcaption class="text-xs-center achiever-block__text"> <div class="display--table"> <div class="display--table-cell"> <div class="achiever-block__text--center"> <div class="achiever-block__name text-brand-primary">Keith L. 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Ellison</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180928060637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/nora-ephron/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Nora Ephron</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180928060637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/julius-erving/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Julius Erving</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180928060637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/tony-fadell/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Tony Fadell</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180928060637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/paul-farmer/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Paul Farmer, M.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180928060637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/suzanne-farrell/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Suzanne Farrell</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180928060637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/sally-field/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Sally Field</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180928060637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/lord-norman-foster/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Lord Norman Foster</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180928060637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/aretha-franklin/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Aretha Franklin</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180928060637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/milton-friedman-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Milton Friedman, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180928060637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/carlos-fuentes/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Carlos Fuentes</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180928060637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/athol-fugard/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Athol Fugard</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180928060637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/ernest-j-gaines/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Ernest J. Gaines</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180928060637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/william-h-gates-iii/"><span class="achiever-list-name">William H. Gates III</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180928060637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/frank-gehry/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Frank O. Gehry</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180928060637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/murray-gell-mann-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Murray Gell-Mann, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180928060637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/carlos-ghosn/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Carlos Ghosn</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180928060637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/vince-gill/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Vince Gill</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180928060637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/ruth-bader-ginsburg/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Ruth Bader Ginsburg</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180928060637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/louise-gluck/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Louise Glück</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180928060637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/whoopi-goldberg/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Whoopi Goldberg</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180928060637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/jane-goodall/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Dame Jane Goodall</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180928060637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/doris-kearns-goodwin/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Doris Kearns Goodwin, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180928060637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/mikhail-s-gorbachev/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Mikhail S. Gorbachev</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180928060637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/nadine-gordimer/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Nadine Gordimer</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180928060637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/stephen-jay-gould/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Stephen Jay Gould, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180928060637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/carol-greider-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Carol Greider, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180928060637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/john-grisham/"><span class="achiever-list-name">John Grisham</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180928060637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/dorothy-hamill/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Dorothy Hamill</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180928060637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/demis-hassabis-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Demis Hassabis, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180928060637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/lauryn-hill/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Lauryn Hill</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180928060637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/sir-edmund-hillary/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Sir Edmund Hillary</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180928060637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/reid-hoffman/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Reid Hoffman</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180928060637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/khaled-hosseini/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Khaled Hosseini, M.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180928060637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/ron-howard/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Ron Howard</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180928060637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/john-hume/"><span class="achiever-list-name">John Hume</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180928060637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/louis-ignarro-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Louis Ignarro, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180928060637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/daniel-inouye/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Daniel K. Inouye</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180928060637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/jeremy-irons/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Jeremy Irons</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180928060637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/john-irving/"><span class="achiever-list-name">John Irving</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180928060637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/kazuo-ishiguro/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Kazuo Ishiguro</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180928060637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/sir-peter-jackson/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Sir Peter Jackson</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180928060637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/donald-c-johanson/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Donald C. Johanson, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180928060637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/frank-m-johnson/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Frank M. Johnson, Jr.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180928060637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/philip-johnson/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Philip C. Johnson</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180928060637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/chuck-jones/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Chuck Jones</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180928060637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/james-earl-jones/"><span class="achiever-list-name">James Earl Jones</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180928060637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/quincy-jones/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Quincy Jones</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180928060637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/beverly-joubert/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Beverly Joubert</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180928060637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/dereck-joubert/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Dereck Joubert</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180928060637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/paul-kagame/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Paul Kagame</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180928060637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/thomas-keller-2/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Thomas Keller</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180928060637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/anthony-m-kennedy/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Anthony M. Kennedy</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180928060637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/b-b-king/"><span class="achiever-list-name">B.B. King</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180928060637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/carole-king/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Carole King</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180928060637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/coretta-scott-king/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Coretta Scott King</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180928060637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/henry-kissinger-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Henry A. Kissinger, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180928060637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/willem-j-kolff/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Willem J. Kolff, M.D., Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180928060637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/wendy-kopp/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Wendy Kopp</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180928060637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/henry-r-kravis/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Henry R. Kravis</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180928060637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/nicholas-d-kristof/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Nicholas D. Kristof</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180928060637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/mike-krzyzewski/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Mike Krzyzewski</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180928060637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/ray-kurzwell/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Ray Kurzweil</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180928060637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/eric-lander-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Eric S. Lander, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180928060637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/robert-s-langer-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Robert S. Langer, Sc.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180928060637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/richard-leakey/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Richard E. Leakey</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180928060637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/leon-lederman-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Leon Lederman, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180928060637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/robert-lefkowitz-m-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Robert J. Lefkowitz, M.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180928060637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/congressman-john-r-lewis/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Congressman John R. Lewis</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180928060637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/maya-lin/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Maya Lin</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180928060637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/george-lucas/"><span class="achiever-list-name">George Lucas</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180928060637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/norman-mailer/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Norman Mailer</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180928060637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/peyton-manning/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Peyton Manning</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180928060637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/wynton-marsalis/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Wynton Marsalis</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180928060637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/john-c-mather-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">John C. Mather, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180928060637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/johnny-mathis/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Johnny Mathis</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180928060637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/ernst-mayr-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Ernst Mayr, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180928060637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/willie-mays/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Willie Mays</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180928060637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/frank-mccourt/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Frank McCourt</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180928060637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/david-mccullough/"><span class="achiever-list-name">David McCullough</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180928060637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/audra-mcdonald/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Audra McDonald</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180928060637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/admiral-william-h-mcraven/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Admiral William H. McRaven, USN</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180928060637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/w-s-merwin/"><span class="achiever-list-name">W. S. Merwin</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180928060637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/james-a-michener/"><span class="achiever-list-name">James A. Michener</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180928060637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/marvin-minsky-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Marvin Minsky, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180928060637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/mario-j-molina-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Mario J. Molina, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180928060637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/n-scott-momaday-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">N. Scott Momaday, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180928060637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/story-musgrave/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Story Musgrave, M.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180928060637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/ralph-nader/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Ralph Nader</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180928060637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/peggy-noonan/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Peggy Noonan</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180928060637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/jessye-norman/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Jessye Norman</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180928060637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/tommy-norris/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Lt. Thomas R. Norris, USN</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180928060637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/joyce-carol-oates/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Joyce Carol Oates</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180928060637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/pierre-omidyar/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Pierre Omidyar</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180928060637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/jimmy-page/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Jimmy Page</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180928060637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/larry-page/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Larry Page</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180928060637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/arnold-palmer/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Arnold Palmer</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180928060637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/leon-panetta/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Leon Panetta</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180928060637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/rosa-parks/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Rosa Parks</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180928060637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/suzan-lori-parks/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Suzan-Lori Parks</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180928060637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/linus-pauling/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Linus C. Pauling, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180928060637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/shimon-peres/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Shimon Peres</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180928060637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/itzhak-perlman/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Itzhak Perlman</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180928060637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/general-david-petraeus/"><span class="achiever-list-name">General David H. Petraeus, USA</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180928060637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/sidney-poitier/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Sidney Poitier</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180928060637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/general-colin-l-powell/"><span class="achiever-list-name">General Colin L. Powell, USA</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180928060637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/harold-prince/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Harold Prince</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180928060637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/venki-ramakrishnan-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Venki Ramakrishnan, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180928060637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/lord-martin-rees/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Lord Martin Rees</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180928060637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/lloyd-richards/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Lloyd Richards</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180928060637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/sally-ride-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Sally K. Ride, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180928060637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/sonny-rollins/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Sonny Rollins</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180928060637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/anthony-romero/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Anthony Romero</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180928060637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/james-rosenquist/"><span class="achiever-list-name">James Rosenquist</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180928060637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/pete-rozelle/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Pete Rozelle</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180928060637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/bill-russell/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Bill Russell</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180928060637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/albie-sachs/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Albie Sachs</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180928060637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/oliver-sacks-m-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Oliver Sacks, M.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180928060637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/jonas-salk-m-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Jonas Salk, M.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180928060637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/frederick-sanger-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Frederick Sanger, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180928060637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/george-b-schaller-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">George B. Schaller, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180928060637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/barry-scheck/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Barry Scheck</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180928060637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/richard-evans-schultes-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Richard Evans Schultes, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180928060637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/general-h-norman-schwarzkopf/"><span class="achiever-list-name">General H. Norman Schwarzkopf, USA</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180928060637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/stephen-schwarzman/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Stephen A. Schwarzman</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180928060637/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/glenn-t-seaborg-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Glenn T. 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