Head and shoulders image of Dr. Hans Selye, pioneer of the "General Adaptation Syndrome" (G.A.S.), relating to stress.

Bio/historical note: Hans Selye was born in Vienna in 1907. As early as his second year of medical school (1926) at the University of Prague, he began developing his now-famous theory of the influence of stress on people's ability to cope with and adapt to the pressures of injury and disease, the "General Adaptation Syndrome" (G.A.S.). As an endocrinologist, Dr. Selye wrote 26 books and more than 1500 articles on stress and related problems, including Stress without Distress (1974) and The Stress of Life (1956). Some authorities refer to him as "the Einstein of Medicine." Selye also served as professor and director of the Institute of Experimental Medicine and Surgery at the University of Montreal. He died in 1982 in Montreal.