Bone Metabolism and Vitamin D Levels in Carbamazepine‐treated Patients

Mircea Steriade was born in Bucharest, Romania on August 20, 1924. He started his investigations of the nervous system during his first year of medical school (1945), and continued this work with relentless determination until a few months before his death. The only individual he ever recognized as a mentor, Frédéric Bremer, identified this feature of his personality, this intense striving, by calling him l’infatigable Monsieur Steriade. Mircea Steriade’s long list of publications constitutes a vivid reflection of the exciting evolution of neurosciences through the second half of the twentieth century. He started his professional career as a researcher in the Laboratory of Neurophysiology at the Institute of Neurology in Bucharest, Romania. Then, after a short transition at the Université de Montréal, he established his own laboratory at the Université Laval in Quebec City, Canada. During the last two years of his life, he returned to Montréal, first on a sabbatical (his first sabbatical ever!) and then as a Visiting Professor. Summarizing Mircea Steriade’s career and outstanding contributions, as well as his passionate character, is difficult in a short article. Clearly, Professor Steriade will be remembered as one of the most productive neuroscientists of the last six decades. Most of his work was devoted to the understanding of thalamocortical networks and of their contribution to the genesis of brain oscillations – including epileptiform activities. He was an outstanding electrophysiologist and theorist. He made invaluable insights into the mechanisms of sleep oscillations (both physiological and pathological) and their modulation by brainstem activation systems. Many of our most influential and challenging ideas about the origins of spike-wave seizures, and about the contribution of intrinsic properties of cortical neurons to consciousness, were introduced by Mircea Steriade. He had an unfettered belief that hard work is the main source of advancement in science. And he lived this philosophy. Professor Steriade arrived before anyone else in the laboratory, and served as an inspiring impulse for his students and younger colleagues. He remained youthful and vigorous in scientific debate, served especially well by his vast memory and encyclopedic knowledge of neuroscience. During his last years, seeing the rise of in vitro techniques in neuroscience, he fought passionately for the place of in vivo experimentation as an irreplaceable method for understanding the complex features of biological behaviors. Through his leadership and laboratory contributions to experimental neuroscience and epilepsy, Mircea Steriade’s career has touched generations of researchers. His strong personality and high standards will continue to influence the neuroscience and epilepsy research fields, through those who knew him (his many students and collaborators) and those inspired by his creative legacy.