From DNA to Beer

Sir Howard W. Florey

Howard W. Florey (1898–1968), an Australian pathologist, is credited with the discovery of penicillin, along with Alexander Fleming and Ernst Boris Chain. For this breakthrough, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1945, along with his colleagues. Penicillin, the first antibiotic, made many infections, from bothersome to life-threatening, treatable. Its discovery spawned the pharmaceutical industry.