My Hero’s profile (Rodolfo Llinás)

Rodolfo Llinás Riascos, is a colombian neurophysiologist. He

was born on December 16 in 1934 in Bogotá. His parents
were the neurologist Jorge Llinas and Bertha Riascos, had
two more daughters, Patricia and Margarita. As a child
Llinas was motivated to study the brain because he watched
his grandfather work, since he was a psychiatrist.

In 1952, he graduated from high school in the Gimnasio

Moderno and he enrolled to the Pontificia Universidad
Javeriana, where he got the title of the surgeon doctor in
1959. After, he traveled to the United States to study
neurosurgery, but this mind changed and began to research
on experimental neuroscience at the University of
Minnesota. Years later, he traveled to Australia to study at
the Australian National University, where he got the Ph.D. in neurophysiology. While he was
studying there met Gillian Kimber, and Llinás married with she in 1965. A year later, they had their
first son, Rafael. Time after, he returned to the United States where he settled with his wife and two
sons. He has been a teacher at the neuroscience school at the New York University for more forty
years, moreover he is the first and only “University professor” from that university, that let him
teach any subject related whit the neuroscience.

In 1988, Llinas wrote an article about one of his investigations that was published in science, as a
result, one year later was enunciated the law of Llinas or also caller law of no interchangeability,
which says that a neuron of a certain class can not be replaced by a neuron for another class. In
2002 he published one of his more important books, “I of the vortex: from neurons to self (in Spanish:
“El cerebro y el mito del yo”), with which he won the award for “Best book of health” at the book
fair Book Expo America eleven years later.

He has done multiple research and has received different acknowledgments for his achievements.
Also, he has been a leader for Education in Colombia the last years. Besides, the journalist Pablo
Correa wrote a book about his life and career “Rodolfo Llinás” la pregunta dificil”, published a year
ago.

The neurophysiologist is recognized for his revolutionary contributions to neuroscience, among the
most important are his law of Llinas and the creation of Magnetoencephalography that allows to
see the brain in 3D. It has 15 published books, 6 patents registered in the United States, he also has
seven honorary doctorates and many trials, and he is looking for the cure of Alzheimer’s.

Made by:
Deicy Indira Sánchez Hurtado
Stiven Ruidíaz Valencia
Cristina Isabel Bolaños Argote