Alexander Fleming 2
Sir Alexander Fleming was a Scottish biologist and pharmacologist. Fleming published many articles on bacteriology, immunology and chemotherapy. His best-known achievements are the discovery of the enzyme lysozyme in 1923 and the antibiotic substance penicillin from the fungus Penicillium notatum in 1928, for which he shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1945 with Howard Walter Florey and Ernst Boris Chain.
Alexander Fleming was born August 6, 1881 at Lochfield, a farm near Darvel in East Ayrshire, Scotland. He was the third of four children to Hugh Fleming and Grace Stirling Morton. Fleming attended Louden Moor, and Darvel School, where he earned a two year scholarship to Kilmarnock Academy before moving to London where he attended the Royal Polytehnic Institution. After working in a shipping office for four years, twenty-year-old Fleming inherited some money from his uncle John Fleming. His older brother, Tom, was already a physician and suggested to Alexander that he should follow the same career. In 1901, Fleming enrolled at St. Mary’s Hospital, Paddington, London. He qualified for the school with distinction in 1906 and had the option of becoming a surgeon.
By chance however, he had been a member of the Rifle Club, and the captain of the club wishing to retain Fleming in the team suggested that he joined the research department at St. Mary’s, where he became assistant bacteriologist to Sir Almroth Wright. He gained M.B. and then B.Sc. with Gold Medal in 1908 and became a lecturer at St. Mary’s until 1914. On December 23, 1915, Alexander married a trained nurse, Sarah Marion McElroy of Killala, Ireland.
Alexander served throughout World War I as a captain in the Army Medical Corps, and was mentioned in dispatches. He and many of his colleagues worked in the battlefields hospitals at the Western Front in France. In 1918, he returned to St. Mary’s Hospital, which was a teaching hospital. He was elected Professor of Bacteriology in
Alexander Fleming was born August 6, 1881 at Lochfield, a farm near Darvel in East Ayrshire, Scotland. He was the third of four children to Hugh Fleming and Grace Stirling Morton. Fleming attended Louden Moor, and Darvel School, where he earned a two year scholarship to Kilmarnock Academy before moving to London where he attended the Royal Polytehnic Institution. After working in a shipping office for four years, twenty-year-old Fleming inherited some money from his uncle John Fleming. His older brother, Tom, was already a physician and suggested to Alexander that he should follow the same career. In 1901, Fleming enrolled at St. Mary’s Hospital, Paddington, London. He qualified for the school with distinction in 1906 and had the option of becoming a surgeon.
By chance however, he had been a member of the Rifle Club, and the captain of the club wishing to retain Fleming in the team suggested that he joined the research department at St. Mary’s, where he became assistant bacteriologist to Sir Almroth Wright. He gained M.B. and then B.Sc. with Gold Medal in 1908 and became a lecturer at St. Mary’s until 1914. On December 23, 1915, Alexander married a trained nurse, Sarah Marion McElroy of Killala, Ireland.
Alexander served throughout World War I as a captain in the Army Medical Corps, and was mentioned in dispatches. He and many of his colleagues worked in the battlefields hospitals at the Western Front in France. In 1918, he returned to St. Mary’s Hospital, which was a teaching hospital. He was elected Professor of Bacteriology in
Cited: 1. ^ "Alexander Fleming – Time 100 People of the Century". Time Magazine. http://205.188.238.181/time/time100/scientist/profile/fleming.html. 2. . "Alexander Fleming Biography". Les Prix Nobel. The Nobel Foundation. http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/1945/fleming-bio.htm. Retrieved 2008-07-24. 3. Michael, Roberts, Neil, Ingram (2001). Biology. Edition: 2, illustrated. Springer-Verlag. ISBN 0748762388. 4. The Birth of Penicillin, Allen & Unwin, London, 1970