Jonas Salk

Jonas Edward Salk was born in New York City on 28 October 1914, the son of Jewish immigrants. He studied at City College and at New York University's medical school, where he chose research over private practice. Working with Thomas Francis at the University of Michigan in the 1940s, he helped develop a vaccine against influenza made from killed virus. In 1947 he moved to the University of Pittsburgh. Paralytic polio epidemics were then terrifying American parents each summer. Funded by the March of Dimes, Salk developed a vaccine using poliovirus killed with formaldehyde, which he tested on himself and his family. In 1954 about 1.8 million schoolchildren, the 'Polio Pioneers', took part in a national field trial directed by Thomas Francis. On 12 April 1955 the vaccine was announced as safe and effective, and mass vaccination began. Salk did not patent the vaccine. Polio cases in the United States fell dramatically, and Albert Sabin's oral vaccine followed in the early 1960s. In 1960 Salk founded the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla, California. He died there on 23 June 1995.

Faith: Born to Jewish parents; his personal beliefs are not well documented. Source: Wikipedia

See also: Edward Jenner · Louis Pasteur