Robert Burns Aird an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 educator and physician, founded the department of neurology

Neurology

Neurology is a medical specialty dealing with disorders of the nervous system. Specifically, it deals with the diagnosis and treatment of all categories of disease involving the central, peripheral, and autonomic nervous systems, including their coverings, blood vessels, and all effector tissue,...

 at the University of California at San Francisco. In addition to conducting his own research (Flynn Aird syndrome

Flynn Aird syndrome

Flynn-Aird Syndrome is a rare, hereditary, neurological disease that is inherited in an autosomal dominant fashion. The syndrome involves defects in the nervous, auditory, skeletal, visual, and endocrine systems and encompasses numerous symptoms, bearing striking similarity to other known syndromes...

 bears his name), Aird developed the department into a leading academic center for study of the brain sciences, drawing future Nobel laureate Stanley Prusiner as a resident late during Aird's tenure.