Howard Florey

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Howard Florey

Howard Walter Florey, Baron Florey (born September 24, 1898 in Adelaide , Australia , † February 21, 1968 in Oxford , England ) was an Australian pathologist .

For the discovery of the antibiotic penicillin and its healing effects in various infectious diseases, he, Alexander Fleming and Ernst Boris Chain received the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1945 .

Florey attended St. Peter's College in Adelaide , where he excelled in both sports and other academic achievements, and studied medicine at the University of Adelaide from 1917 to 1921 . He continued his studies in 1921 as a Rhodes Fellow at Magdalen College, Oxford University, where he received his bachelor's and master's degrees . From 1926 he was at Gonville and Gaius College, Cambridge University , whose Fellow he was and where he received his doctorate in 1927 . As a post-doctoral student he was in the USA and Cambridge. In 1931 he became professor of pathology at the University of Sheffield and from 1935 professor at Oxford, where he also became a fellow at Lincoln College.

In 1938, after reading Alexander Fleming's essay on the antibacterial effects of the penicillin fungus, he began to work with Ernst Boris Chain and Norman Heatley on developing the mass production of penicillin, which was ready in time for treatment during World War II. The basis for the large-scale production that began in 1941 was the manufacture of penicillin by Florey and Chain in 1938. In a 1967 interview, however, Florey stated that he originally researched penicillin out of a purely scientific interest and that its medical application was only a side issue.

They treated their first patient, Albert Alexander, in 1941. He had a severe wound infection from a rose thorn bite and also recovered after administration of penicillin, but the supply was insufficient and he died in the end.

Florey remained in Oxford for the remainder of his career, becoming Provost of Queen's College in 1962 .

In 1941 he was a member ( " Fellow ") to the Royal Society elected in 1951 to him Royal Medal , 1957, the Copley Medal awarded. In 1960 he was (the first Australian) President of the Royal Society. In 1945 he received the Lister Medal . In 1963 he was elected to the National Academy of Sciences and the American Philosophical Society , and in 1964 to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences . From 1964 to 1966 he was Chancellor of the Australian National University , but stayed in England.

He was knighted in 1944 and made a Life Peer in 1965 as Baron Florey , of Adelaide in the Commonwealth of Australia and of Marston in the County of Oxfordshire . In the same year he was also accepted into the prestigious Order of Merit .

From 1926 he was married to the doctor Ethel Reed, who had studied with him, and had two children. Shortly after the death of his wife in 1967, he remarried. His marriage to his long-time colleague Dr. Margaret Jennings was only brief, however, as he died soon after.

On May 4, 1999, the IAU named the asteroid (8430) Florey after him, as did the lunar crater Florey on January 22, 2009 .

Fonts

  • Penicillin as a chemotherapeutic agent. In: Lancet. Volume 2, 1940, pp. 226-228.
  • Further observations on penicillin. In: Lancet. Volume 2, 1941, pp. 177-189.

Web links

Commons : Howard Florey  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Cay-Rüdiger Prüll: Forey, Howard Walter. In: Werner E. Gerabek , Bernhard D. Haage, Gundolf Keil , Wolfgang Wegner (eds.): Enzyklopädie Medizingeschichte. De Gruyter, Berlin / New York 2005, ISBN 3-11-015714-4 , p. 405.
  2. ↑ Bright Sparcs Exhibition with appreciation from Florey . Florey in interview on April 5, 1967 with Hazel Berg, National Library, Canberra
  3. ^ Member History: Howard W. Florey. American Philosophical Society, accessed August 8, 2018 .
  4. ↑ Minor Planet Circ. 34627
personal data
SURNAME Florey, Howard
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Florey, Howard Walter, Baron Florey (full name)
SHORT DESCRIPTION Australian pathologist
DATE OF BIRTH September 24, 1898
PLACE OF BIRTH Adelaide , Australia
DATE OF DEATH February 21, 1968
Place of death Oxford , England