Wilder Graves Penfield, OM, CC, CMG, FRS (January 26, 1891 – April 5, 1976) was an American born Canadian neurosurgeon. During his life he was called "the greatest living Canadian". He devoted much thinking to the functionings of the mind, and continued until his death to contemplate whether there was any scientific basis for the existence of the human soul.

Penfield was born in Spokane, Washington (but spent most of his life in Hudson, Wisconsin) on January 25 or January 26, 1891. He studied at Princeton University where he played on the football team. After graduation in 1913, he was hired briefly as the coach. He then obtained a Rhodes Scholarship to Merton College, Oxford, where he studied neuropathology under Sir Charles Scott Sherrington. He obtained his medical degree from Johns Hopkins University. He spent several years training at Oxford, where he met William Osler. He also studied in Spain, Germany, and New York.

After taking surgical apprenticeship under Harvey Cushing, he obtained a position at the Neurological Institute of New York, where he carried out his first solo operations against epilepsy. While in New York, he met David Rockefeller, who desired to endow an institute where Penfield could study the surgical treatment of epilepsy. However, academic politics among the New York neurologists prevented the establishment of this institute in New York; subsequently, Penfield was invited by Sir Vincent Meredith to Montreal in 1928. There, Penfield taught at McGill University and the Royal Victoria Hospital, becoming the city's first neurosurgeon.

Brenda Milner, CC GOQ FRS FRSC (born 15 July 1918) is a Canadian neuroscientist who has contributed extensively to the research literature on various topics in the field of clinical neuropsychology.

Born in Manchester, England, Milner received her undergraduate degree at the University of Cambridge in 1939, and her Ph.D. degree under Donald Hebb at McGill University in 1952. She joined Wilder Penfield at the Montreal Neurological Institute in 1950 and published landmark papers with Penfield and William Beecher Scoville in 1957 and 1958. She was the Dorothy J. Killam Professor of Psychology, Montreal Neurological Institute and Department of Neurology & Neurosurgery at McGill University.

Milner was a pioneer in the field of neuropsychology and in the study of memory and other cognitive functions in humans. She was the first to study the effects of damage to the medial temporal lobe on memory and systematically described the deficits in the most famous patient in cognitive neuroscience, HM. Through a series of landmark studies, Dr. Milner showed that the medial temporal lobe amnestic syndrome is characterized by an inability to acquire new memories and an inability to recall established memories from a few years immediately before damage, while memories from the more remote past and other cognitive abilities, including language, perception and reasoning are intact. She also showed that in patients with this syndrome the ability to learn certain motor skills remained normal. This finding introduced the concept of multiple memory systems within the brain and stimulated an enormous body of research.

Jacques de Champlain is a scientist, doctor and professor from the Province of Quebec. Born on March 13, 1938, he died on July 15, 2009 of a heart attack. Jacques de Champlain was a graduate of the Université de Montréal and McGill University and a pioneer in research on the nervous system. He was also a member of the Royal Society of Canada, an Officer of the Order of Canada and an Officer of the Ordre national du Québec. He was a Research Professor in the Departments of Physiology and Medicine at the Université de Montréal.

William Howard Feindel, OC GOQ FRSC (born July 12, 1918) is a Canadian neurosurgeon, scientist and professor.

Born in Bridgewater, Nova Scotia, he received a B.A. in Biology from Acadia University in 1939, a M.Sc. from Dalhousie University in 1942, and an MDCM from McGill University in 1945. Attending Merton College, Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar he received his D. Phil in 1949.

After completing his residency, Feindel was in neurosurgical practice for two years with Wilder Penfield at the Montreal Neurological Institute. In 1955 he founded the Neurosurgical Department at the University Hospital in Saskatoon.

In 1959 Feindel re-joined the Montreal Neurological Institute where he founded the William Cone Laboratory for Neurosurgical Research and became the first William Cone Professor of Neurosurgery and then Director of the MNI from 1972 to 1984. During this tenure he led a clinical neuroscience team to acquire the first CAT and combined MRI/S units in Canada and to develop the world's first PET system utilizing a prototype Japanese "Baby" cyclotron and the MNI-designed BGO crystal PET scanner for detecting brain tumours and stroke. He integrated these systems into a Brain Imaging Center (BIC), within a major extension of the MNI, opened in 1984 and since then recognized as a leading world center for clinical diagnosis, teaching and research in neuro-imaging.

Phil Gold, CC OQ FRSC FRCPC (born September 17, 1936) is a Canadian physician, scientist, and professor.

Born in Montreal, Quebec, he received a B.Sc. degree in 1957, a M.Sc. degree in 1961, a M.D. degree in 1961, and a Ph.D. in 1965 from McGill University.

In 1968, he co-discovered with Samuel O. Freedman the carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA), which resulted in a blood test used in the diagnosis and management of people with cancer.

He is the Douglas G. Cameron Professor of Medicine, and Professor of Physiology and Oncology, at McGill University. He was Chairman of the Department of Medicine at McGill and Physician-in-Chief at the Montreal General Hospital.

In 1978, he was made an Officer of the Order of Canada and promoted to Companion in 1985. In 1989, he was made an Officer of the National Order of Quebec. In 1977, he was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. In 1978, he was awarded the Gairdner Foundation International Award, awarded to three to six people for outstanding discoveries or contributions to medical science. He was awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Silver Jubilee Medal and the 125th Anniversary of the Confederation of Canada Medal. On April 13, 2010, he was inducted into the Canadian Medical Hall of Fame.