One of the most hyped films of the upcoming Christmas movie season is “Concussion,” starring Will Smith as Dr. Bennet Omalu, the Nigerian forensic pathologist who was the first doctor in America to publish findings of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) in NFL and college football players.
Dr. Omalu will be speaking this Thursday evening, Dec. 3, at 7:30 p.m. at the David A. Straz Center for the Performing Arts in Ferguson Hall. The event is free and no tickets are required for this event, which is part of the USF Frontier Forum Lecture Series sponsored by the College of Arts and Sciences and the Office of the Provost.
Omalu conducted the autopsy of the late Pittsburgh Steelers center Mike Webster, which led to his discovery of a new disease that he named CTE back in 2002. However, the NFL did not publicly acknowledge the link between concussions sustained in football and CTE until December 2009.
Dr. Omalu is currently the chief medical examiner of San Joaquin County, Calif. and a professor in the UC Davis Department of Medical Pathology and Laboratory Medicine.
USF says that Omalu will sign copies of his book, Play Hard, Die Young: Football Dementia, Depression and Death, which can be purchased at the event.
