DR. JOHN J. WILD

St. Louis Park Resident Dr. John J. Wild is known as the father of the modern ultrasound.

Dr. Wild was born in Kent, England in 1914 and grew up in London. He received his B.A. in Natural Science (Honors, 1936), his M.A. in Natural Science (1940), his M.B.B.Chir. in Medicine (1942), which is equivalent to M.D. in the US, and his Ph.D. (1971) from Cambridge University, England.
 

Dr. Wild served as an intern at University College Hospital in London and then served as a staff surgeon at Miller General, St. Charles and North Middlesex hospitals during the period of 1938 - 1942. He joined the Royal Army Medical Corps in 1944 at the rank of Captain, serving as a venereologist until 1945, treating hundreds of British and American soldiers for venereal disease.
 

In 1946, Dr. Wild left London to pursue a research fellowship at the University of Minnesota (Minneapolis) where he served as a research fellow in the Department of Surgery from 1946-1950.

In 1949 he discovered that sonic energy, or a pulse-echo ultrasound, was reflected as echoes from soft biological tissue. This discovery led to the production of the first real-time ultrasonic images in living tissue. The advancement made it possible to detect tumors without harmful X-rays.

From 1951-1953, Dr. Wild was a research associate in the Department of Electrical Engineering were he conducted interdisciplinary research funded by National Cancer Institute grants. In 1953, Dr. Wild established the Medico Technological Research Department at St. Barnabas Hospital (Minneapolis), and continued his interdisciplinary clinical research under grants from the National Cancer Institute and the National Heart Institute until 1960. From 1960 to 1963, he served as the Director of the Medico Technological Research Unit at the Minnesota Foundation, St. Paul, MN. After his research lab was closed, he served as the Director of the Medico-Technological Research Institute in Minneapolis [St. Louis Park?] until it closed in 1999.

Dr. Wild also worked as a doctor in private practice from 1966 until recently.

Dr. Wild has won many prizes and has appeared on  many programs, including:

The Smithsonian's INVENTIONS VI (#68, 1996) series featured Dr. Wild for his achievements in diagnostic medical ultrasound, which aired on the Discovery Channel.

Bill Kurtis' NEW EXPLORERS: DOCTORS WITH X-RAY VISION (1997) featured Dr. Wild's work, which aired on public television (PBS).


See also: 

http://www.ob-ultrasound.net/jjwildbio.html   and

http://www.wildultrasound.com/

Home    St. Louis Park History    History Index    About the Society    Research Resources
Brookside Timeline    Something In The Water    The Re-Echo    Contact Us

This information comes from a variety of sources: newspapers, books, yearbooks, phone directories, interviews, etc. Given the varied sources, we cannot guarantee that all of this information is correct, and welcome any additions and corrections. Please contact us with your contributions and comments.