Waksman and Fleming, Antibiotic Researchers

Waksman (left) discusses his experiments with Fleming in 1951. Selman Abraham Waksman (July 22, 1888 - August 16, 1973) was a Ukrainian-American biochemist and microbiologist whose research into organic substances and their decomposition promoted the discovery of Streptomycin, and several other antibiotics. A professor of biochemistry and microbiology at Rutgers University for four decades, he discovered over twenty antibiotics (a word which he coined) and introduced procedures that have led to the development of many others. In 1951, using half of his personal patent royalties, Waksman created the Waksman Foundation for Microbiology. In 1952 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in recognition for his discovery of streptomycin, the first antibiotic active against tuberculosis. He was author or co-author of over 400 scientific papers, 28 books and 14 scientific pamphlets. He died in 1973 at the age of 85. Alexander Fleming (August 6, 1881 - March 11, 1955) was a Scottish biologist and pharmacologist. He wrote many articles on bacteriology, immunology, and chemotherapy. His best-known discoveries are the discovery of the enzyme lysozyme in 1923 and the antibiotic substance penicillin from the mold Penicillium notatum in 1928, for which he shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1945 with Howard Florey and Ernst Boris Chain. Fleming's accidental discovery and isolation of penicillin marked the start of modern antibiotics. He died in 1955 from a heart attack at the age of 73

Restrictions Only for Ireland and United Kingdom

Antibiotic Antibiotics Bacteriologist Biochemist Biochemistry Biologist Biology Discovered Fleming Immunologist Immunology Knighted Laureate Microbiologist Microbiology Nobelist Penicillin Pharmacologist Recipient Researcher Selman Ukrainian Waksman

Features In These Collections

> Contributors > PHR