Luc Calliauw


Luc Calliauw is a Belgian physician and university professor.

Early life

Calliauw is a son of Elza Bruynooghe and Raphael Calliauw, manager at the administrative services of the city of Bruges. After grammar school at the Royal Atheneum in Bruges, Calliauw studied at the University of Ghent, where in 1953 he received the degree of doctor in medical sciences. In 1960 he received homologation as a specialist in neurosurgery.
In 1968 he obtained a doctor's degree at the University of Utrecht with a dissertation about hemispherectomy on human patients. He completed his military service as a physician within the Belgian Navy and rose to the rank of lieutenant colonel.

Academic and surgical career

Calliauw was a brain surgeon, specialising in spinal marrow surgery and of epilepsy. He also devoted part of his time to research, especially regarding brain tumors and their treatment. He combined his neurosurgical practice with his academic career.
From 1952 till 1955 he was an assistant of professor Corneel Heymans, Nobel Prize of Medicine, at the Institute of Pharmacology and Therapy in Ghent. There he wrote the doctoral thesis About the Pharmacology of Protoveratrine A en B. From 1955 till 1963 he was assistant, head assistant and finally head of the neurosurgical clinic of dr. H. Verbiest in Utrecht. In 1963 he founded and led the neurosurgical department of the Clinic Saint-John in Bruges. In 1979 he was appointed as professor of neurosurgery at the University of Ghent and director of neurosurgery at the Academic Clinic of Ghent. In 1994 he retired and henceforth devoted himself to editorial work and to postgraduate formation of surgeons in Asia and Africa. From 2002 till 2007 he was professor at the University of Science in Malaysia. His influence upon the evolution of neurosurgery in Malaysia has been important, and has been nicknamed the 'Calliauwization' of the neurosurgical specialty. He was made an honorary member of the Neurosurgical Association of Malaysia.

Professional organisations

Calliauw has been active within the world of neurosurgery. He was:
Calliauw wrote several books, a number of chapters in collective works and more than a hundred scientific articles:
His articles include: