Mongi Ben Hamida

Professor Mongi Ben Hamida was an internationally celebrated neurologist who trained under Raymond Garcin in Paris and completed research fellowships at Columbia University. In 1974, he founded the National Institute of Neurology at La Rabta in Tunis.

His pioneering clinical and molecular genetics research led to the discovery of severe autosomal recessive muscular dystrophy (limb-girdle muscular dystrophy type 2C, known eponymously as Ben Hamida syndrome). He also served as Tunisia's Minister of Public Health and Vice President of the World Federation of Neurology.