Nobel Prize Recipient. Dr. Willem Einthoven received professional recognition after receiving the 1924 Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine. He received this coveted award, according to the Nobel Prize committee, "for his discovery of the mechanism of the electrocardiogram." He coined the name for the instrument as the "Electrocardiogram," and by 1912 the machine was called the EKG. Other physicians had discovered in the mid-1800s that an electrical impulse was occurring with each heartbeat. Beginning to design in the late 1890s, he developed a progress called the string galvanometer, which precisely measures tiny currents in the heart. With his find, he gave the doctor the ability to assess the parts of the heart, the functions, and finally, diagnose disease. He named the deflections of each heart beat in the EKG wave as P Q R S T and U. Einthoven's first major paper about the EKG appeared in 1903. His diagnostic instrument would be the prototype for the modern EKG machine used today to treat cardiac disease. He received 31 nominations for the Nobel Prize candidacy, with 21 submitted since 1921. At the Nobel Prize presentation ceremony, he gave a humble speech at the banquet naming those who had helped him, and later, he gave a very scientific lecture on the EKG machine. Born the son of a Jewish-Dutch physician, his father served in the military in the Dutch Indies, which is today Java. He was six years old when his father died, and four years later, his mother with her six children returned to their homeland, the Netherlands. In 1885 he graduated from the University of Utrecht with a degree in medicine, and he served as professor of physiology at the University of Leiden from 1886 until his death. Before 1900, he studied the diseases of the lungs and eye then studying the heart. In 1902 he become a member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences. From 1908 to 1913 he studied the patterns of records of normal heart activity in order to gain precision in recognizing and interpreting the abnormal heart beat. In 1909 a British physician, Dr. Thomas Lewis, came to the Netherlands to learn about his EKG machine and took one home with him. Lewis was nominated to share Einthoven's 1924 Nobel Prize but that did not happen. Letters between the two men document that they became professional colleagues and as well as close friends. Thomas' 1911 textbook on the anatomy of the heart was dedicated to Einthoven. After giving permission to Lewis, the younger, energic British cardiologist advanced the study of the heart using the EKG machine along with improving the machine. Using Einthoven's EKG machine, Lewis taught cardiology for decades to seasoned physicians as well as postgraduate medical students from around the world. Einthoven studied the heart the rest of his career. Willem Einthoven married in 1886 and had four children. The Institute of Cardiology in Mexico has a huge mural of Einthoven in the entrance hallway. When the Dutch postage stamps was issued to honor the nation's Nobel Prize recipient, he received that honor.