Andermann, Frederick

Dr. Frederick Andermann was born on September 26, 1930, in Czernowitz, Bukovina (then Romania, now Chernivtsi, Ukraine).

He was a Canadian neurologist, epileptologist, professor, and author. When the area he lived in was annexed by the Soviet Union in 1940, his family fled to Bucharest. Later, they lived in Switzerland, Vienna, and Paris. In 1950, they immigrated to Montreal, where Dr. Andermann studied medicine at the Université de Montréal and neurology at the Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital. He became a professor at the Departments of Neurology and Neurosurgery and Pediatrics at McGill University and the director of the Epilepsy Unit and Clinic of the Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital. He was a founding member and president of the Canadian League Against Epilepsy, the Canadian Neurological Society, the Canadian Society for Clinical Neurophysiology, and the Canadian Association of Child Neurologists. He worked closely with his wife Eva (also a neurologist). He showed a remarkable ability to identify rare neurological syndromes, assemble multidisciplinary teams of researchers, and provide patients and families with hope for treatment. The results of his inquiries have been published in nine books and over 500 scientific papers. The Andermanns were also credited with having described a rare genetically inherited neurological condition associated with agenesis of the corpus callosum and peripheral neuropathy, now known as Andermann Syndrome. Dr. Andermann has been recognized for his outstanding achievements. He was the recipient of numerous awards and prizes, e.g. an Officer of the Order of Canada and the Order of Quebec and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada.

In 1965, he married Dr. Eva Deutch. He died on June 16, 2019, in Montreal, Quebec.