Abstract: Introduction: Modern clinical neurology started by the mid-1960s, coinciding with the launch of a post-graduate programme at Clínica Puerta de Hierro in Madrid, where the author specialised between 1969 and 1973.
Objectives: I chronologically analyse my pre-graduate training, the creation and development of Clínica Puerta de Hierro, my post-graduate training at that centre, and my research career at Hospital Universitario Marqués de Valdecilla between 1974 and 2021.
Development: The excellent pregraduate neuroanatomical instruction was decisive in my decision to specialise in neurology at Clínica Puerta de Hierro, a pioneering centre in post-graduate training within the Spanish social security system. My research activity has fundamentally focused on the study of ataxia, Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease, Guillain-Barré syndrome, and various syndromes involving unknown or rare neurological features.
Conclusion: My career has spanned almost five decades of uninterrupted neurological research, largely derived from my solid post-graduate training and the inestimable help of my colleagues. This research activity soon garnered international recognition, which has unquestionably served as great encouragement.
