Dr. Paul Kalanithi (1977 - 2015) was an American neurosurgeon and the author of When Breath Becomes Air, a critically acclaimed memoir published in 2016. The book details his life, career, and reflections following a diagnosis of stage IV metastatic lung cancer.
Kalanithi studied at Darwin College, University of Cambridge, where he earned a Master of Philosophy in History and Philosophy of Science and Medicine in 2002. He later graduated cum laude from the Yale School of Medicine in 2007, receiving the Dr. Louis H. Nahum Prize for his research on Tourette’s syndrome.
Following medical school, he completed a residency and postdoctoral fellowship in neuroscience at Stanford University. In May 2013, during his final year of training, Kalanithi was diagnosed with lung cancer. Despite his illness, he continued to write and reflect on life, mortality, and the meaning of being both doctor and patient. Paul Kalanithi passed away in March 2015 at the age of 37. Learn more.