Dr. Ronald Melzack - Academics

After recieving his PhD in 1954, Dr. Melzack chose to further explore irrational fears in animals. The University of Oregon attracted him because of Dr. William Livingston's physiology laboratory for rats as well as people. It was in this laboratory that Dr. Melzack was first exposed to the puzzle of pain. A woman whose leg had been amputated complained of terrible pain in the leg that had been removed! Dr. Melzack took careful note of individuals like her, and would return to study them in years to come.

After spending time at the University College London, and the University of Pisa in Italy, Dr. Melzack became a faculty member at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) where he met Dr. Patrick Wall, who had similar thoughts and ideas surrounding the phenomenon of pain.