Jonas Salk

Jonas Salk
Jonas Salk at Copenhagen Airport (May 1959)
Born	Jonas Edward Salk (1914-10-28)October 28, 1914 New York, New York, U.S.
Died	June 23, 1995(1995-06-23) (aged 80) La Jolla, California, U.S.
Resting place	El Camino Memorial Park San Diego, California
Residence	New York, New York Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania La Jolla, California
Fields	Medical research, virology, and epidemiology
Institutions	University of Pittsburgh Salk Institute University of Michigan
Alma mater	City College of New York New York University University of Michigan
Doctoral advisor	Thomas Francis, Jr.
Known for	First polio vaccine
Notable awards	Lasker Award (1956)
Spouse	Donna Lindsay (m. 1939; div. 1968) Françoise Gilot (m. 1970)
Signature

External audio

National Press Club Luncheon Speakers, Jonas Salk, April 12, 1965, speech at 4:05-32:13, National Press Club

Jonas Edward Salk (/sɔːlk/; October 28, 1914 – June 23, 1995) was an American medical researcher and virologist. He discovered and developed one of the first successful polio vaccines. Born in New York City, he attended New York University School of Medicine, later choosing to do medical research instead of becoming a practicing physician. In 1939, after earning his medical degree, Salk began an internship as a scientist physician at Mount Sinai Hospital. Two years later he was granted a fellowship at the University of Michigan, where he would study flu viruses with his mentor Thomas Francis, Jr..

Until 1955, when the Salk vaccine was introduced, polio was considered one of the most frightening public health problems in the world. In the postwar United States, annual epidemics were increasingly devastating. The 1952 U.S. epidemic was the worst outbreak in the nation's history. Of nearly 58,000 cases reported that year, 3,145 people died and 21,269 were left with mild to disabling paralysis, with most of its victims being children. The "public reaction was to a plague", said historian William L. O'Neill. "Citizens of urban areas were to be terrified every summer when this frightful visitor returned." According to a 2009 PBS documentary, "Apart from the atomic bomb, America's greatest fear was polio." As a result, scientists were in a frantic race to find a way to prevent or cure the disease. In 1938, U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, the world's most recognized victim of the disease, had founded the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis (known as March of Dimes Foundation since 2007), an organization that would fund the development of a vaccine.