Asao Hirano

Asao Hirano graduated from Kyoto University with a degree in medicine and in 1953 came to the United States to train as a clinician and to learn neuropathology. He began training in neuropathology at Montefiore Medical Center in New York in 1955. From 1959 to 1960, he lived in Guam as a visiting scientist at the National Institutes of Health to study an endemic disease, which is similar to Alzheimer's and Parkinson's. His work identified what is considered to be a standard feature of Alzheimer's disease, now known as the Hirano body. He received the Weil Award in 1961 from the American Association of Neuropathologists for this achievement, and was commended by the U.S. House of Representatives in 1992 and the Assembly of Guam in 1998.

For over thirty years, Asao Hirano has served as Head of the Neuropathology Division of Montefiore Medical Center and Professor of Albert Einstein College of Medicine. In these roles, he has enthusiastically instructed interns and medical students in Neurological Science to foster the next generation of neuroscientists.

Hirano has published several neuropathology textbooks written in the Japanese language. These books have enabled Japanese medical students to study neuropathology in their own language. Hirano often visits Japan to give lectures for neuroscientists and medical doctors.

The Government of Japan has honoured him with The Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Rosette for his outstanding contributions to neuropathology.

We thank Patrick Jucker-Kupper, Switzerland, for information submitted.