Edvard Ehlers

Edvard Ehlers

Edvard Laurits Ehlers (26 March 1863 in Copenhagen – 7 May 1937) was a Danish dermatologist whose name was given to a group of rare genetic connective tissue disorders, known collectively as the Ehlers–Danlos syndromes (EDS).

Edvard Lauritz Ehlers grew up as the Mayor of Copenhagen's son and qualified in medicine in 1891. In the following years he went into further studies in Berlin, Breslau, Vienna and Paris. In Iceland he studied the decline of leprosy and was rewarded for his studies with a prize from the National Leprosy Fund in London. In 1906 he was appointed chief of the dermatological polyclinic at the Frederiks Hospital in Copenhagen. From 1911 to his retirement in 1932, Ehlers was director at the municipal hospital of Copenhagen.

The Danish-born Australian artist, Sussanne Morton, born Susanne Ehlers, (*1963), is his granddaughter.