Walter Rudolph Hess

Walter Rudolf Hess was born on 17 March 1881 in Frauenfeld, Germany. His father was a physics teacher, which enabled him to acquire knowledge in this field from an early age.

Walter Rudolf Hess began studying medicine, which took him to Lausanne, Bern, Berlin, Kiel and Zurich. In 1906, he was awarded a doctorate in medicine from the University of Latter.

Although it had always been his wish to devote himself to physiology, for external reasons he was forced for a time to become an assistant in surgery and then in ophthalmology. However, this turn should be seen as an asset, as it taught him to diagnose and operate with precision.

In 1912, Walter Rudolf Hess decided to give up his flourishing practice and return to physiology as an assistant. In 1917, he was appointed director of the Institute of Physiology in Zurich.

Hess's scientific interests focused mainly on dynamics and the regulation of respiration. Thanks to experimental work on the vascular organs, he gave a detailed picture of the representation of the vascular nervous system in the diencephalic system, for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize.

When he gave up his post as director, he was able to keep all the results of several years' work, including a collection of biological specimens that he had built up. In this way, his research can continue, even though it is limited in terms of space and collaborators.

It appears that Hess's experiments on diencephalic stimulation suggest the existence of psychic power. In so doing, he finally bridged the gap that had hitherto separated physiology from psychiatry. Thanks to him, the understanding of psychosomatic phenomena and the way in which psychotropic drugs functioned also made significant progress.

Walter Rudolf Hess died in 1973.

Hess was the first psychiatrist in the world to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.