In Memoriam

The world-wide neurodiagnostic community lost another of our giants when Dr. Ernst Niedermeyer died this past April after a couple of years of failing health. He was known not only as an outstanding scholar and clinician, but also he was a regular feature of ASET meetings, mingling very easily with technologists of all levels. Dr. Niedermeyer identified completely with the experience of sitting at the machine when a brain produces both expected and unexpected electrical patterns and was always very excited at the prospect of technologists writing papers for the Journal. A tribute any technologist can make to the memory of this remarkable man is to see every record as new and interesting, then to follow up on anything unusual by searching the literature, doing further recordings, or both. The final step in the tribute is to take the time to sit down and turn this finding into a paper for the ASET Journal.

We gain some insight into Dr. Niedermeyer’s identification with technologists from his story of his introduction to EEG. Just as giants John Knott and Charles Henry began using the then experimental EEG technology in their own research and progressed from there, Dr. Niedermeyer started as his own technologist and electroencephalographer, with whatever was in print on the topic in the early 1950s as his guide. After the Second World War, the U.S. Marshall Plan gave money and supplies to help rebuild the devastation of Europe. One of the Marshall components was providing EEG instruments and training to neurology departments in European hospitals. Dr. Niedermeyer was head of the neurology department in Innsbruck, Austria, when the hospital received the EEG instrument – but not the technician or training. He plunged into learning this new technology on his own with his characteristic enthusiasm and excitement. In 1960, he had the opportunity to move to Iowa and work with Dr. Knott, a professional move he was very excited about although it meant being a long way from his beloved Alps. He told me when he was back in Innsbruck many years later and read some of his early reports, he realized with shock how relatively little he knew before actually receiving training in Iowa. This entire experience from Innsbruck to Iowa must have given him a tremendous appreciation for really good training materials in both recording and interpreting EEGs. Dr. Niedermeyer’s greatest gift to our profession is his magnificent reference work, Electroencephalography: Basic Principles, Clinical Applications, and Related Fields, of which he created the first edition with Fernando Lopes da Silva in 1978. This work, like so much of Dr. Niedermeyer’s other writing, emphasizes the critical role the technologist plays in any EEG recording.

I felt that I was getting to know the man on a more personal level when I did a review of the second edition of this book in 1988 (Ghigo 1989). This required that I read every word of the volume, not just look up specific syndromes or patterns. What delightful, personal, writing despite being very precise, with references in at least three languages! Needless to say, I was thrilled and honored to inherit Dr. Niedermeyer as Medical Editor when I took over the ASET Journal from Sharon Franklin in 1989. He remained in that position through 1991, having invited enough contributions from medical colleagues to allow the ASET Journal to go from a saddle-stitch to a square-backed binding. This seems picky, but was a move we could make only when the number of papers submitted made each issue “obese” (in Dr. Niedermeyer’s words). Physicians all over the world were honored to receive a request from Dr. Niedermeyer to write something for our journal; I think this influence continues to the present. The first square-backed issue, March 1992, led off with Dr. Niedermeyer’s Ellen Grass Lecture, “Epileptic Syndromes: A Remarkable Contribution of EEG to Epileptology” (Niedermeyer 1992). In addition to being an outstanding scholar, he had a very curious and inventive mind, and delighted in unconventional concepts and theories. He was devastated not to be able to present his paper on Alzheimer’s dementia at the Louisville meeting in 2010; he was so excited and honored to see it in print in our journal (Niedermeyer and Ghigo 20 II).

At the 2012 ASET conference, Faye McNall will be doing a reprise of the wonderful biographical presentation she prepared for the OSET meeting in Germany in 2011. This memoriam will not duplicate that biography, but there is another point that explains the Ernst Niedermeyer we knew from ASET meetings. By the time any of us met him, he was at his peak as a scientist. Before he went to college, however, he struggled with the decision of whether to go into medicine or whether to be a professional pianist! I hope this bit of history brings a smile of recognition to the face of everyone who heard his extraordinary impromptu piano recitals in whatever room at the ASET conference contained a piano. Chopin was a favorite. He will be greatly missed whether at the piano, at the lectern, or at the other end of the phone line wrestling with explanations for the wonderful and complex world of neurophysiology.

– Janet Ghigo, R. EEG/EP T., ELS, AB

References

• Ghigo J. Book Review: Electroencephalography: Basic Principles, Clinical Applications and Related Fields. Am 1 EEG Techno! 1989; 29(1):67-70.
• Niedermeyer E. Ellen R. Grass Guest Lecture: Epileptic Syndromes: A Remarkable Contribution of EEG to Epileptology. Am 1 EEG Techno! 1992; 32( l ):3-25.
• Niedermeyer E, Ghigo 1. Alzheimer Dementia: An Overview and a Promising New Concept. Am J Electroneurodiagnostic Techno! 20 II ; 51 (2): 82-91.

Originally published in:

The Neurodiagnostic Journal, 52: 97–99, 2012
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/21646821.2012.11079850