D. Ewen Cameron was born in Scotland and received his medical degree from the University of Glasgow in 1924. He began his career as resident surgeon at Glasgow Infirmary, but in 1929 came to Canada to work in the Brandon Mental Hospital. In 1936, he became Director of Research at Worcester State Hospital in Massachussetts, and in 1938 was appointed Professor of Neurology and Psychiatry at Albany State Medical School. It was at Albany that Cameron conducted his most important research on sensory deprivation, memory and aging. In 1943, Cameron entered on a new phase of his career when he was appointed Professor of Psychiatry at McGill and director of the newly-created Allan Memorial Institute. On the clinical side, he established in-patient and out-patient services, and a day-hospital programme. He developed laboratories for psychiatric research, and promoted advances in psychiatric training through undergraduate curricula and teaching hospital programmes. Cameron's high reputation in the psychiatric field is attested by his appointment in 1945 to the American panel to examine Rudolf Hess at the Nuremberg trials. After retiring from the Allan in 1964, he returned to Albany as Research Professor at the Albany Medical School and Director of the Laboratory for Research in Psychiatry and Aging at the Veterans' Administration Hospital.