Selman Abraham Waksman (July 22, 1888 – August 16, 1973) was an American biochemist who is most famous for his research into organic substances 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.
Born in Priluky, Ukraine, Waksman obtained his matriculation diploma in 1910 from the Fifth Gymnasium in Odessa, Ukraine, as an extern, and immigrated to the United States, where he graduated from Rutgers University in 1915 with a B.Sc. degree in Agriculture.
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.
Although Waksman had been studying the Streptomycin family of organism since his college student days, the details and credit for the discovery of its use as the antibiotic streptomycin were strongly contested by one of Waksman's graduate students, Albert Schatz, and resulted in litigation. The litigation ended with a substantial settlement for Schatz and the official decision that Waksman and Schatz would be considered co-discoverers of streptomycin. The contention arises because Schatz was the graduate student in charge of performing the lab work of testing streptomycin against tuberculosis (a dangerous task) using techniques, equipment and lab space of Waksman's while under Waksman's direction.
There is contention as to whether or not Schatz should have been included in the Nobel Prize awarded in 1952, but it is understood that the Nobel Prize was awarded not only for the discovery of streptomycin but also for the development of the methods and techniques that led up to its discovery and the discovery of many other antibiotics.
Waksman created the Waksman Foundation for Microbiology in 1951 (Foundation History) using half of his personal patent royalties. At a meeting of the board of Trustees of the Foundation, held in July of 1951 he urged the building of a facility for microbiology, which was named the Waksman Institute of Microbiology.
He is also the author of several books:
- Enzymes (1926)
- Humus: origin, chemical composition, and importance in nature (1936, 1938)
- Principles of Soil Microbiology (1938)
- My Life with the Microbes (1954) (an autobiography)
He died in 1973 and was buried in Woods Hole, Massachusetts.