Basil Hirschowitz

Basil Isaac Hirschowitz (29 May 1925 – 19 January 2013) was an academic gastroenterologist from the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) best known in the field for having invented an improved optical fiber which allowed the creation of a useful flexible endoscope.

In 1953 he moved to the United States, where he continued his gastrointestinal fellowship at the University of Michigan and joined the faculty between 1954 and 1957.

[2] Among his many awards, Basil Hirschowitz received the Schindler Medal of the ASGE, the Friedenwald Medal of the AGA (1992),[3] the General Motors Cancer Research Awards Kettering Prize (1987),[4] the UAB Distinguished Faculty Lecturer, and Honorary Fellow of the Royal Science of Medicine.

Basil Hirschowitz for reaching the pinnacle of academic medicine as a teacher, scientist, and clinician.

Groll-Hirschowitz syndrome — a rare genetic condition characterized by gastrointestinal abnormalities, deafness and neuropathy.