Erik Adolf von Willebrand (1 February 1870 – 12 September 1949) was a Finnish physician who made major contributions to hematology. Von Willebrand disease and von Willebrand factor are named after him. He also researched metabolism, obesity and gout, and was one of the first Finnish physicians to use insulin to treat a diabetic coma. Von Willebrand qualified in medicine in 1896 from the University of Helsinki, where he received his Ph.D. in 1899. He worked at the University of Helsinki from 1900 until 1930. From 1908 until his retirement in 1933, he was the head of the department of medicine at the Deaconess Hospital in Helsinki, where he also was physician-in-chief from 1922 to 1931. In 1924, Von Willebrand was consulted about a young girl with a bleeding disorder. He described this disorder in 1926, distinguishing it from hemophilia. The disorder was named after him, becoming known as von Willebrand disease. The cause of the disease was later discovered to be a deficiency of a protein, now known as von Willebrand factor, that enables hemostasis. Early life and education Von Willebrand was born on 1 February 1870 in Vaasa, then part of the Grand Duchy of Finland in the Russian Empire. He was the third child of Fredrik Magnus von Willebrand and Signe Estlander. Fredrik had received a military education and later became an engineer. Von Willebrand belonged to a German noble family; his ancestors settled in Finland in the 18th century. His family belonged to the Swedish-speaking minority in Finland. Von Willebrand attended Vaasa Lyceum, where he excelled in botany, chemistry and zoology. During this time, he spent his summers collecting botanical, lepidopterological and ornithological specimens, and his winters exploring the Gulf of Bothnia. After obtaining his baccalaureate in 1890, he began his studies at the University of Helsinki, then known as the Imperial Alexander University in Finland. Prior to qualifying as a physician in 1896, he spent the summers of 1894 and 1895 working as a junior physician at a spa in Åland. After graduation, Von Willebrand became assistant physician in the department of medicine at the Deaconess Hospital in Helsinki, where Ossian Schauman supervised his doctoral thesis on the changes in hemocyte count after venesection. Von Willebrand's early hematologic investigations also yielded a study on the regeneration of blood in anemia and a description of a method for the staining of blood smears using eosin and