Bennet Ifeakandu Omalu was born on September 30, 1968. He resides in San Joaquin County in California with his family and is a Catholic by faith. Omalu Bennet and his wife Prema Mutiso, who is a Kenyan by birth, have two sons, Mark and Ashly. Early Life and Biography. The University of Pittsburgh granted him a fellowship in pathology in 2000, followed by another in neuropathology in 2002. Omalu instead pressed forward with his examination of Terry Long, another former football player who had committed suicide at age 45, and discovered the same buildup of tau proteins. Bennet Omalu Biography, Life, Interesting Facts. In 2006, Omalu repeated his research on Terry Long, another renowned NFL player, who killed himself at the age of 45 after suffering from depression for years. Bennet Omalu immigrated to the U.S. in 1994 and arrived at Seattle for completing a fellowship in epidemiology from the University of Washington. Bennet Omalu discovered Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy in former football players, sparking years of denial from the NFL and the creation of a movie about his life's work. Bennet Omalu was born on 30 September, 1968 in South Eastern Nigeria when the country was ravaged by civil war. The conflict had forced his family to vacate its gated compound in the village of Enugwu-Ukwu, but they were eventually able to return there to resume a comfortable lifestyle. Following the NFL Commissioner’s testifying before the US House Judiciary Committee, the MTBI was constituted afresh and the committee’s rules and regulations were reframed in order to incorporate Bennet’s safety recommendations to prevent CTE incidences. After earning his degree in 1990, Omalu interned at Jos University Hospital, before being accepted to a visiting scholar program at the University of Washington in 1994. In 1999, Omalu moved to Pittsburgh to train under noted pathologist Cyril Wecht at the Allegheny County Coroner's Office. Bennet Omalu Biography (1968–) Updated: Sep 8, 2020 Original: Jan 13, 2016. Bennet Omalu, is a Nigerian American physician, neuropathologist, and forensic pathologist, highly acclaimed for conducting pioneering research on CTE (chronic traumatic encephalopathy) and publishing a paper on his groundbreaking investigation. We strive for accuracy and fairness. That year, he also published his first book, Play Hard, Die Young: Football Dementia, Depression, and Death, and he advanced the study of CTE by branching out to athletes from other sports and war veterans. CTE was a neurological facet linked with persistent head trauma which was previously detected in boxers who suffered concussions resulting from heavy blows. By conducting postmortem examination on Weber who had battled depression, extreme mood swings, drug abuse, cognitive debilitation, and died unpredictably following numerous suicide attempts, Bennet had turned the spotlight back on CTE. Bennet Omalu graduated from the University of Nigeria's medical school, before continuing his training in the United States. As the mouthpiece of the NFL, the MTBI Committee discredited Omalu's research as "flawed" and refused to acknowledge a link between the sport and the brain damage in former players. It was similar to "dementia pugilista," a degenerative disease documented decades earlier in boxers, though it had yet to be connected to football players. Omalu created a stir in the media in 2016 by hinting on social media that Hillary Clinton may have been poisoned and recommended toxicological assay of her blood. In 2002, he discovered the presence of a degenerative disease in the brain of former pro football player Mike Webster, naming the condition chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). Eventually, Omalu shifted to California towards the end of 2007, to take up a new job as San Joaquin County’s chief medical examiner, and simultaneously carried on with postgraduate studies at Carnegie Mellon University. http://nypost.com/2017/08/07/concussion-doctor-no-such-thing-as-making-football-safer/, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bennet_Omalu, https://www.biography.com/people/bennet-omalu-122315. Family of Mike Webster received a hefty settlement in 2006, thereby vindicating Omalu’s stand, NLF’s insouciance and evasiveness notwithstanding. He later became the chief medical examiner for San Joaquin County, California, and is a professor at the University of California, Davis, department of medical pathology and laboratory medicine. Former NFL defenseman Terry Crews went on to become an actor, known by many for his humorous turn in Old Spice commercials and for his role on 'Brooklyn Nine-Nine.'. He practiced as a physician for three years following his completion of an internship and soon after migrated to the US to complete a fellowship in epidemiology at University of Washington, Seattle. The film inspired the establishment of an institution in honor of Bennet whose raison-d’être was to continue with further research on concussion and CTE. A former running back for the Chicago Bears, Gale Sayers was the youngest player to be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. He is known as the first person to discover and publish findings of chronic traumatic encephalopathy in players who participate in American football. He became the first forensic pathologist to discover CTE in an American footballer—a neurological affliction which had earlier been discovered in athletes and boxers. Bennet Ifeakandu Omalu (born September 30, 1968 ) is a Nigerian-American physician, forensic pathologist and neuropathologist who was the first to discover and publish findings on chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) in American football players while working at the Allegheny County coroner's office in Pittsburgh. Bennet Omalu, is a Nigerian American physician, neuropathologist, and forensic pathologist. They have welcomed their two children named Ashly Omalu and Mark Omalu. https://www.biography.com/scientist/bennet-omalu. Contrary to Omalu’s expectations, his paper was disregarded by the MTBI (Mild Traumatic Brain Injury) Committee set up by National Football League (NFL), demanding its withdrawal. © 2020 Biography and the Biography logo are registered trademarks of A&E Television Networks, LLC. Ira turned down the report on the ground that their findings were insufficient to pinpoint CTE in NFL players. After being in the relationship for several years with Prema Mutiso, a Kenyan woman, he married to her. He was born on September 30, 1968, in Nnokwa, Idemili South, Anambra State, Nigeria as Bennet Ifeakandu Omalu to a community leader in Enugu-Ukwu and a seamstress. Jonas Salk was an American physician and medical researcher who developed the first safe and effective vaccine for polio. Omalu moved to California in the fall of 2007 to begin his new position as chief medical examiner of San Joaquin County, though he continued his post-graduate education at Pittsburgh's Carnegie Mellon University and earned his MBA in 2008. Our Biography of Dr Bennet Omalu provides facts on his Childhood Story, Early Life, Family Facts, Parents, Wife, Children, Net Worth, Lifestyle, and Personal Life. Biography. The media started taking notice of Omalu’s work from 2009, nearly seven years after he began his research on CTE. Along with his position as chief medical examiner for San Joaquin County, he serves as president of Bennet Omalu Pathology, as well as associate clinical professor of pathology at UC Davis Medical Center. In the paper, he also laid emphasis on carrying out advanced and extensive research on the condition. Dr. Bennet Omalu: Biography.