Paul Kalanithi
Neurosurgeon and writer
Paul Kalanithi was an American neurosurgeon and writer. His memoir When Breath Becomes Air looks at his life and his illness with lung cancer.
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Born 1977 in Bronxville, United States Died 2015
About Paul Kalanithi
Paul Kalanithi (1977 to 2015) was an American neurosurgeon, neuroscientist and writer. He studied English literature and human biology at Stanford University, then history and philosophy of science and medicine at the University of Cambridge, and graduated from Yale School of Medicine in 2007. He returned to Stanford for neurosurgery residency, finishing in 2014, and received the American Academy of Neurological Surgery's highest award for research. In 2013 he was diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer. He died in March 2015, aged 37, while working on When Breath Becomes Air. The memoir about his life and illness was published posthumously by Random House in January 2016 and spent several weeks on The New York Times nonfiction bestseller list. He was survived by his wife, Lucy, and their daughter.