Alexander Fleming
1881 – 1955 · aged 74
Scottish biologist, pharmacologist, botanist, and Nobel laureate (1881–1955)
- Born
- 6 Aug 1881 · Lochfield
- Died
- 11 Mar 1955 · London
Life timeline
Their life from birth to death. On the timeline, world events of the time are shown faintly.
- 6 Aug 1881BornBorn in Lochfield
- 1939 – 1945WarWorld War II
- 1943AwardFellow of the Royal Society
- 1944AwardJohn Scott Award
- 1944AwardKnight Bachelor
- 1945AwardDoctor honoris causa from the University of Paris
- 1945AwardHonorary Fellow of the Royal Society Te Apārangi
- 1945AwardNobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
- 1946AwardAlbert Medal
- 1946AwardCommander of the Legion of Honour
- 1948AwardGrand Cross of the Civil Order of Alfonso X the Wise
- 1948AwardHonorary doctor of the University of Madrid Complutense
- 1949AwardActonian Prize
- 1954AwardHonorary doctor of the University of Bordeaux
- 11 Mar 1955DiedDied in London
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Meanwhile in the world
Major world events during their lifetime (1881 – 1955).
- 18961896 Summer Olympics
- 1898Spanish–American War
- 1904 – 1905Russo-Japanese War
- 1914 – 1918World War I
- 1915 – 1923Armenian genocide
- 1917Balfour Declaration
- 1917February Revolution
- 1917October Revolution
- 1917 – 1922Russian Civil War
- 1919 – 1920Paris Peace Conference
- 1920Treaty of Versailles
- 1933 – 1945The Holocaust
- 19341934 FIFA World Cup
- 19361936 Summer Olympics
- 1937 – 1945Second Sino-Japanese War
- 19381938 FIFA World Cup
- 1938Munich Agreement
- 1939 – 1940Winter War
- 1940 – 1945Auschwitz concentration camp
- 1941Attack on Pearl Harbor
- 1941 – 1945Eastern Front
- 1941Operation Barbarossa
- 1942 – 1943Battle of Stalingrad
- 1945Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
- 1945 – 1946Nuremberg trials
- 19501950 FIFA World Cup
- 1950 – 1953Korean War
- 1953 – 1959Cuban Revolution
- 19541954 FIFA World Cup
- 1955 – 1975Vietnam War
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.
Text from the Wikipedia article Alexander Fleming, CC BY-SA 4.0
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