Howard Florey
|
The Lord Florey OM FRS FRCP |
|
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born | Howard Walter Florey 24 September 1898 Adelaide, South Australia |
| Died |
21 February 1968 (aged 69) Oxford, United Kingdom |
| Nationality | Australian |
| Fields | Bacteriology, immunology |
| Institutions |
University of Adelaide University of Oxford University of Cambridge University of Sheffield |
| Education | St Peter's College, Adelaide |
| Alma mater | University of Adelaide Magdalen College, Oxford |
| Known for | Discovery of penicillin's properties |
| Influences | Charles Sherrington |
| Notable awards |
Fellow of the Royal Society (1941) Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (1945) Lister Medal (1945) Knight Bachelor Albert Medal (1946) Royal Medal (1951) Copley Medal (1957) Lomonosov Gold Medal (1965) Wilhelm Exner Medal (1960) |
Howard Walter Florey, Baron Florey, OM, FRS, FRCP (24 September 1898 – 21 February 1968) was an Australian pharmacologist and pathologist who shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1945 with Sir Ernst Boris Chain and Sir Alexander Fleming for his role in the development of penicillin.
Although Fleming received most of the credit for the discovery of penicillin, it was Florey who carried out the first ever clinical trials in 1941 of penicillin at the Radcliffe Infirmary in Oxford on the first patient, a postmaster from Wolvercote near Oxford. The patient started to recover but subsequently died because Florey was unable, at that time, to make enough penicillin. It was Florey and Chain who actually made a useful and effective drug out of penicillin, after the task had been abandoned as too difficult.
Florey's discoveries, along with the discoveries of Alexander Fleming and Ernst Chain, are estimated to have saved over 200 million lives, and he is consequently regarded by the Australian scientific and medical community as one of its greatest figures. Sir Robert Menzies, Australia's longest-serving Prime Minister, said, "In terms of world well-being, Florey was the most important man ever born in Australia".
Howard Florey was the youngest of three children and the only son. His father, Joseph Florey, was an English immigrant, and his mother Bertha Mary Florey was a third-generation Australian. He was born in Adelaide, South Australia, in 1898.
...
Wikipedia