Alexander Fleming
British Bacteriologist
Biography
- Born August 6th, 1881 in Lochfield, Scotland.
- Occupation- Biologist, Scientist
- Died on March 11, 1955
- Education- Kilmarnock Academy, University of London, St. Mary's Hospital Medical School, Regent Street Polytechnic (now the University of Westminster), Louden Moor School, and Darvel School.
Medical Field
- 1901- Started his medical career, entering St. Mary's Hospital Medical School
- Graduated in 1906, he began working at that institution with Sir Almroth Edward Wright, a pathologist
- Became one of the first to use Paul Ehrlich's arsenical compound, Salvarsan, to treat syphilis in Great Britain.
- Fleming joined the Royal Army Medical Corps during World War I, studied wounds and infection-causing bacteria at a hospital in Boulogne, France.
Discovery of Penicillin
- 1928- Fleming was growing cultures of bacteria in petri dishes for expierments, he accidentally left certain dishes uncovered for several days.
- Fleming found a mold growing in the dishes and began to discard them, when he noticed, the bacteria near the bacteria was destroyed.
- Preserved the mold, strain of Penicillin, and investigated-he deduced an anti-bacterial compound was being produced by mold, and named it Penicillin.
- Fleming dropped his investigation of Penicillian and his discovery remained unoticed until 1940.
Citations
- "Alexander Fleming." Notable Scientists from 1900 to the Present. Ed. Brigham Narins. Detroit: Gale, 2008. Biography in Context. Web. 7 Jan. 2016
- "Alexander Fleming." World of Health. Gale, 2007. Biography in Context. Web. 7 Jan. 2016.