Who is Alexander Fleming?

Alexander Fleming is Scottish biologist, pharmacologist, botanist, and Nobel laureate.

How did Alexander Fleming die?

Alexander Fleming passed away in 1955 (myocardial infarction).

What is Alexander Fleming known for?

Alexander Fleming is primarily known as a(n) surgeon, bacteriologist, physician, pharmacologist, inventor.

Alexander Fleming

Scottish biologist, pharmacologist, botanist, and Nobel laureate

Born:August 6, 1881

Died:March 11, 1955

Age at death:73

Manner of death:Natural Causes

Cause of death:Myocardial Infarction

Zodiac Sign:Leo

Born in:Lochfield, United Kingdom

Buried in:United Kingdom

Languages:English

Surgeon Bacteriologist Physician Pharmacologist Inventor

Signature

Links

Wikipedia

Awards

honorary doctor of the University of Bordeaux (1954)Actonian Prize (1949)honorary doctor of the University of Madrid Complutense (1948)Grand Cross of the Civil Order of Alfonso X the Wise (1948)Albert Medal (1946)

Alexander Fleming

Scottish biologist, pharmacologist, botanist, and Nobel laureate

Biography

Sir Alexander Fleming (6 August 1881 – 11 March 1955) was a Scottish physician and microbiologist. He shared the 1945 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Howard Florey and Ernst Chain "for the discovery of penicillin and its curative effect in various infectious diseases". This was the first antibiotic substance discovered. His discovery in 1928 of what was later named benzylpenicillin (or penicillin G) from the mould Penicillium rubens has been described as the "single greatest victory ever achieved over disease". He also discovered the enzyme lysozyme from his nasal discharge in 1922, and along with it a bacterium he named Micrococcus lysodeikticus, later renamed Micrococcus luteus. Fleming was knighted for his scientific achievements in 1944. In 1999, he was named in Time magazine's list of the 100 Most Important People of the 20th century. In 2002, he was included in the BBC's television poll of the 100 Greatest Britons, and in 2009, he was also voted third "greatest Scot" in an opinion poll conducted by STV, behind only Robert Burns and William Wallace.

This biography uses content from the Wikipedia article “Alexander Fleming”, available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License.

Quotes

“How fortunate we didn't have these animal tests in the 1940s, for penicillin would probably not have been granted a licence, and possibly the whole field of antibiotics might never have been realised.”

— Reported in Dennis V. Parke, "Clinical Pharmacokinetics in Drug Safety Evaluation," in ATLA: Alternatives To Laboratory Animals, vol. 22, no. 3, May/June 1994, p. 208.; The context is: "the present approach to drug safety evaluation, based on experimental animal studies, is known to be of questionable scientific veracity and has never been satisfactorily validated as an appropriate surrogate system for man. My former teacher, Sir Alexander Fleming, in his late years, chided me, saying …"

“When I woke up just after dawn on September 28, 1928, I certainly didn’t plan to revolutionize all medicine by discovering the world’s first antibiotic, or bacteria killer, ... But I guess that was exactly what I did.”

“It is the lone worker who makes the first advance in a subject: the details may be worked out by a team, but the prime idea is due to the enterprise, thought, and perception of an individual.”

Quotes sourced from the Wikiquote article "Alexander Fleming", available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License.

Photos

Synthetic Production of Penicillin Professor Alexander Fleming, holder of the Chair of Bacteriology at London University, who first discovered the mould Penicillin Notatum. Here in his laboratory at St Mary's, Paddington, London (1943).

Photos of Dr. Fleming and of three soldiers trying to save a wounded soldier on battlefront. Below them it reads 'In the midst of war came Penicillin, great new medicine for saving lives, discovered by Britain's Dr. Fleming - On battlefronts, United Nations medical skill speeds aid to wounded soldiers. Russia started the first blood banks' At left are flags of US, Haiti, Honduras, India, Iran, Iraq, Liberia, Luxembourg, Mexico, Netherlands. Part 15 of a series by Life.

Almroth Wright, LC, A Fleming, Harvey Cushing, Clemenger (Poxy Jim), in First World War. Archives & Manuscripts

Sample of penicillin mould presented by Alexander Fleming to Douglas Macleod, 1935. Front three-quarter view, grey background.

17-0007-001 print 4x5 b&w [Formal portrait, inscribed "To Clifford Swanson with kindest regards, Alexander Fleming" showing Fleming at his desk in a white lab coat with penicillin mold in petrie dishes around him] Appears to be a copy of the original photograph Swanson Scrapbooks

Sir Alexander Fleming during the National Congress on Antibiotics in Milan visited SPA and Rodolfo Ferrari Laboratories

Inscription Fleming Discovered Penicillin {Around the profile bust:} Alexander Fleming Prix Nobel 1945

Das Grab des britischen Arztes und Bakteriologen (Nobelpreis Medizin) Alexander Fleming in der Krypta der St. Pauls Cathedral in London.

Nobel prize medal for medicine, Sweden, 1945, to Sir Alexander Fleming (1881-1955) who discovered Penicillin. On display at the National Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh, Scotland, UK.