Alexander Fleming
The man who discovered the penicillin
![Fleming on his laboratory](https://www.thoughtco.com/thmb/nG5bvqAE3D_O5qzxzdVKJ38YznI=/1500x1000/filters:fill(auto,1)/fleming-5bb2394b46e0fb002604dbe0.jpg)
This article is about the biologist. For other people named Alexander Fleming, see Alexander Fleming (disambiguation).
Sir
Alexander Fleming
FRS FRSE FRCS
Synthetic Production of Penicillin TR1468.jpg
Sir Alexander Fleming in his laboratory at St Mary's, Paddington, London (1943).
Born 6 August 1881
Darvel, East Ayrshire, Scotland
Died 11 March 1955 (aged 73)
London, England
Resting place St. Paul's Cathedral
Citizenship British
Alma mater
Royal Polytechnic InstitutionSt Mary's Hospital Medical SchoolImperial College London
Known for Discovery of penicillin and
Lysozyme
Awards
- FRS (1943)[1]
- Bachelor (1944)
- Cameron Prize for Therapeutics of the University of Edinburgh (1945)
- Nobel Prize (1945)[2]
- FRSE FRCS(Eng) Scientific career Fields Bacteriology, immunology
His discovery in 1928 of what was later named benzylpenicillin (or penicillin G) from the mould Penicillium rubens is described as the "single greatest victory ever achieved over disease."[3][4] For this discovery, he shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1945 with Howard Florey and Ernst Boris Chain.[5][6][7]
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.[8] In 1999, he was named in Time magazine's list of the 100 Most Important People of the 20th century. In 2002, he was chosen in the BBC's television poll for determining 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.
If you have time, you should read more about this incredible human being on Wikipedia