Dr. Bennet Omalu

Dr. Bennet Omalu, born in Eastern Nigeria during the civil war in 1968, faced many challenges in his early life. His family, living as refugees, were under constant fire by the Nigerian Air Force, and he suffered from war-related undernutrition during his first two years. Despite these hardships, Omalu entered medical school at the young age of 15 and became a physician by 21.

During his tenure at the Allegheny County Coroner's office in Pittsburgh in 2002, Dr. Omalu made a significant career breakthrough. He was the first doctor to discover and identify chronic brain damage, which he named Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE), as a major factor in the deaths of some professional athletes. This discovery came to light following an autopsy he conducted on Mike Webster, a renowned Center in NFL history, who had died at age 50. Over the next five years, Dr. Omalu identified CTE in eight more deceased NFL players, including Terry Long, Justin Strzelczyk, Andre Waters, and Tom McHale. He was also the first to discover CTE in military veterans diagnosed with PTSD, as well as professional wrestlers.

Despite his groundbreaking findings, Dr. Omalu's work was initially dismissed and even ridiculed by his professional peers, the NFL, and the sports industry at large. The NFL's Mild Traumatic Brain Injury Committee even called for the retraction of his findings, but Dr. Omalu persevered in his pursuit of truth. It wasn't until 2009, seven years after his initial discovery, that his research on CTE began to gain acceptance in the scientific community.

In recognition of his work, Dr. Omalu received the American Medical Association's Distinguished Service Award in 2016. His pioneering research has revolutionized neuroscience, sports medicine and safety, and the study of all types of brain trauma. His life and work were chronicled in a book and film, both titled "Concussion," released in 2015. Dr. Omalu has also authored other books on the subject, including "Play Hard, Die Young: Football Dementia, Depression, and Death" (2008), and "Truth Doesn't Have a Side: My Alarming Discovery About the Danger of Contact Sports" (2017).

Currently, Dr. Omalu is the President and Medical Director of Bennet Omalu Pathology, the Chief Medical Examiner for San Joaquin County, California, and a Professor at the University of California, Davis, in the Department of Medical Pathology and Laboratory Medicine. Despite achieving naturalized U.S. citizenship in 2015, he has faced controversies in his professional life, including disputes with the county sheriff over death investigations, leading to his resignation as chief medical examiner. Regardless, he continues his important work in pathology and brain injury research.