Jonas Salk (1914-1995)
The American microbiologist who invented the vaccine to prevent polio, Jonas Salk was the oldest child of Jewish immigrants from Poland. He earned his medical degree from the New York University School of Medicine and then worked with Thomas Francis, Jr. at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, funded by a National Research Council Fellowship. They developed a "killed-virus" vaccine to counter type A and B influenza viruses. In 1947 he moved to the Virus Research Laboratory at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and built a lab to accommodate his research efforts. By 1952 Salk was ready to test his "killed-virus" polio vaccine and the trial inoculations began in 1954. By the end of 1955, seven million children were immunized and cases of polio were reduced by 96 percent. Salk's approach differed from that of Albert Sabin, the leading advocate of a live-virus polio vaccine. By 1958, Sabin's oral vaccine replaced Salk's intravenous shot but Salk is still credited as having defeated polio. He founded the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla, California, in 1960, earned the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1977, and worked in the field of science until his death.
Additional Information Can Be Found At...
Perspective of Mind: Jonas Salk
WIC Biography - Dr. Jonas Salk
Creative Quotations from Jonas Salk (1914-1995)
Salk, Jonas Edward - Encarta Online Deluxe
TIME 100: Scientists & Thinkers - Jonas Salk
Scientist of the Month-Jonas Salk
A Science Odyssey: People and Discoveries: Jonas Salk