Nation & World News
Ben Carson biography
Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson speaks to reporters after stopping at The Airport Diner on February 7, 2016 in Manchester, New Hampshire. (Photo by Matthew Cavanaugh/Getty Images)
Ben Carson was born to a single mom in Detroit. Carson himself said that he had "bad grades and a horrible temper," but with the world of reading his mother introduced to him, his grades improved so much that he "excelled in high school."
According to his official biography, Carson:
- Attended Yale University where he met his wife Candy.
- Worked as an X-ray technician, bank teller, school bus driver, steel factory crane operator and a supervisor for highway cleanup crews.
- Accepted to The University of Michigan School of Medicine.
- Performed residence at Johns Hopkins Univeristy Medical Center.
- 1987- Performed the first successful separation of conjoined twins, attached at the back of the head (craniopagus).
- 1994 - Founded the Carson Scholars Fund, which, in addition to granting scholarships, also sets up Carson Reading rooms.
- 1998 - Performed successful separation of type-2 vertical craiophagus twins in South Africa.
- 2001 - Named by CNN and Time as one of the country's 20 foremost physicians and scientists. Carson was also named as one of 89 "Living Legends" by the Library of Congress.
- 2004 - Named by President George W. Bush to serve on President's Council on Bioethics.
- 2006 - Awarded the Spingarn Medal, the highest honor from the NAACP.
- 2008 - Awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Bush.
- Carson has published eight books including his autobiography, which was made into a movie starring Cuba Gooding, Jr. as Dr. Carson.
