Selman Waksman: Difference between revisions

'''Selman Abraham Waksman''' ([[July 22]], [[1888]] – [[August 16]], [[1973]]) was an American [[biochemistry|biochemist]] who is most famous for his research into [[organic substance]]s and their decomposition, which in [[1943]] eventually led to the discovery of [[streptomycin]]. In [[1952]] his lifetime of achievements earned him the [[Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine]].

 

 

He performed research in soil bacteriology under Dr. J.G. Lipman at the New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station before being awarded his M.Sc. degree in [[1916]]. That same year Waksman became a [[naturalized citizen]] and was appointed a Research Fellow at the [[University of California, Berkeley]] where he earned his Ph.D. in Biochemistry in [[1918]]. He later joined the faculty at [[Rutgers University]] in the Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology. It was at Rutgers that Waksman discovered several antibiotics, including [[actinomycin]], [[clavacin]], [[streptothricin]], [[streptomycin]], [[grisein]], [[neomycin]], [[fradicin]], [[candicidin]], [[candidin]], and others. Two of these, [[streptomycin]] and [[neomycin]], have found extensive application in the treatment of numerous infectious diseases. [[Streptomycin]] was the first [[antibiotic]] that could be used to cure the disease [[tuberculosis]]. Waksman coined the term [[antibiotics]].