AI Mode conversation: paul kalanithipaul kalanithiDr. Paul Kalanithi (April 1, 1977 – March 9, 2015) was a brilliant American neurosurgeon, neuroscientist, and writer. He is most globally recognized as the author of the deeply moving, posthumously published memoir When Breath Becomes Air, which chronicles his sudden transition from a physician treating the dying to a patient facing terminal, stage IV metastatic lung cancer at just 36 years old.