Jill Bolte Taylor

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Jill Bolte Taylor
Jill Bolte Taylor speaking at TED on February 27, 2008
Born	1959
Residence	Bloomington, Indiana
Known for	Work in neuroanatomy

Jill Bolte Taylor (1959–) is a neuroanatomist who specializes in the postmortem investigation of the human brain. She taught at the Indiana University School of Medicine as an anjunct for a few semesters-"Kinesiology Department", is the national spokesperson for the Harvard Brain Tissue Resource Center, and is the consulting neuroanatomist for the Midwest Proton Radiotherapy Institute. Her own personal experience with a massive stroke, experienced in 1996 at age 37, and her subsequent nine-year recovery, has informed her work as a scientist and speaker. For this work, in May 2008 she was named to Time Magazine's list of the 100 most influential people in the world.^[1]

[edit] Background

On December 10, 1996, Dr. Taylor woke up to discover that she was experiencing a rare form of stroke, an arteriovenous malformation (AVM). Three weeks later, on December 27, 1996, she underwent major brain surgery at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) to remove a golf ball-sized hemorrhage that was placing pressure on the language centers in the left hemisphere of her brain.

Dr. Taylor's remarkable February 2008 TED Conference talk^[2] about her memory of the stroke^[3] became an Internet sensation, resulting in widespread attention and interest around the world and an interview with Oprah Winfrey.^[4]

Dr. Taylor has written a best-selling book called My Stroke of Insight: A Brain Scientist's Personal Journey^[5], about her recovery from the stroke and the insights she has gained into the workings of her brain. Viking president Clare Ferraro won rights to publish the memoir in an intense auction conducted by Ellen Stiefler of Stiefler Law Group^[6], and Viking rushed the previously self-published book into hardcover to capitalize on Jill Bolte Taylor’s rapidly rising profile.

Taylor was the first guest featured on Oprah’s Soul Series^[7] webcast on Oprah.com and Satellite radio show starting May 12; Ms. Winfrey had been discussing Dr. Taylor with Eckhart Tolle during webinars for Oprah's Book Club about A New Earth, Eckhart Tolle's bestselling book.