The Stradiņš Name

Rīga Stradiņš University (RSU) bears the name of the whole Stradiņš family. The values, life wisdom and principles of the Stradiņš family, which have been passed down over several generations, are the things that the Rīga Stradiņš University wants to encourage in its students.

The Stradiņš family, many of whom have attained professional success and acknowledgement both in Latvia and abroad, comes from Viesīte. The most renowned members of the family are Pauls Stradiņš, who was born on 17 January 1896 in the family of craftsman Jānis Stradiņš in Viesīte, and later became a surgeon, oncologist, medicine historian and professor, and his son Jānis Stradiņš, who was born on 10 December 1933, and is well known as a chemist, science historian, professor and academician.

P. Stradiņš also has three daughters – architect and artist Irēna Stradiņa, linguist Maija Sosāre and physical medicine and rehabilitation doctor Asja Eglīte. Several of P. Stradiņš grandchildren have become doctors too – PhD, gastroenterologist Linda Sosāre and cardiac surgeons – Professor Andrejs Ērglis and PhD Pēteris Stradiņš. His grandson, Professor Pauls Stradiņš, is a renowned physicist in the USA.

Quoting the words of academician J. Stradiņš:

"the family shares a love for work, democratic principles, self-criticism, the setting of high goals, sufficient intelligence and intellect, national identity awareness, as well as an independent view on life”.