David Hubel

David Hubel (1926-2013) was a Canadian neurophysiologist that was a co-winner (with partner Torton Weisel and co-recipient Roger W. Sperry) of the 1981 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their work on the visual cortex. They had studied how the brain processes information in the visual system. Hubel moved to the United States in 1954 and worked at Johns Hopkins as an assistant resident in neurology. After being drafted he worked and studied at Walter Reed Hospital. After this he returned to Johns Hopkins and during this time began recording data from the primary visual cortex of both sleeping and awake cats as comparison studies of cerebral cortex activity. After many years and the creation of many original instruments he and his research partners discovered orientation selectivity and columnar organization in the mammalian visual cortex.