Medicine
Clinical medicine is where discovery meets a patient. These figures introduced antisepsis and anaesthesia, isolated antibiotics and insulin, built vaccines and transplant surgery, and added decades to global life expectancy.
55 indexed lives · 18 Nobel laureates · 28 countries
Where to start
Marie Skłodowska-Curie
1867 – 1934The only person to win Nobel Prizes in two different sciences.
Katalin Karikó
b. 1955Demoted, defunded, and right: her mRNA work produced the COVID vaccines.
Camillo Golgi
1843 – 1926The silver stain that made neurons visible.
Nobel recognition in Medicine
- Camillo Golgi
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, 1906
- Santiago Ramón y Cajal
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, 1906
- Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Nobel Prize in Physics 1903; Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1911
- Alexander Fleming
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, 1945
- Bernardo Houssay
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, 1947
- Frederick Banting
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, 1923
- Howard Florey
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, 1945
- Macfarlane Burnet
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, 1960
- Rita Levi-Montalcini
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, 1986
- Alan Hodgkin & Andrew Huxley
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, 1963
- César Milstein
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, 1984
- Tu Youyou
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, 2015
- Elizabeth Blackburn
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, 2009
- Barry Marshall
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, 2005
- Katalin Karikó
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, 2023
- Denis Mukwege
Nobel Peace Prize, 2018
- Katalin Karikó's collaborator Drew Weissman
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, 2023
- Shinya Yamanaka
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, 2012
Medicine across the centuries
1st–5th century · 2
6th–14th century · 6
15th–17th century · 1
18th century · 1
19th century · 22
- Ignaz Semmelweis1818 – 1865
- Louis Pasteur1822 – 1895
- Carlos Juan Finlay1833 – 1915
- Camillo Golgi1843 – 1926
- Santiago Ramón y Cajal1852 – 1934
- Sigmund Freud1856 – 1939
- Anton Chekhov1860 – 1904
- Zhang Xichun1860 – 1933
- José Rizal1861 – 1896
- Marie Skłodowska-Curie1867 – 1934
- Nicolae Paulescu1869 – 1931
- Weston A. Price1870 – 1948
- Oswaldo Cruz1872 – 1917
- Ita Wegman1876 – 1943
- Carlos Chagas1879 – 1934
- Marie Stopes1880 – 1958
- Alexander Fleming1881 – 1955
- Bernardo Houssay1887 – 1971
- Frederick Banting1891 – 1941
- Howard Florey1898 – 1968
- Macfarlane Burnet1899 – 1985
- Keisetsu Otsuka1900 – 1980
20th century · 22
- Rita Levi-Montalcini1909 – 2012
- Yoshio Manaka1911 – 1989
- Alan Hodgkin & Andrew Huxley1914 – 1998
- Jonas Salk1914 – 1995
- Abram Hoffer1917 – 2009
- Tenzin Choedrak1922 – 2001
- Frantz Fanon1925 – 1961
- César Milstein1927 – 2002
- Tu Youyoub. 1930
- Nawal El Saadawi1931 – 2021
- Herbert Benson1935 – 2022
- Sidney MacDonald Bakerb. 1936
- Ashok Vaidya1940 – 2023
- Ted Kaptchukb. 1947
- Elizabeth Blackburnb. 1948
- Joseph Pizzornob. 1948
- Barry Marshallb. 1951
- Dean Ornishb. 1953
- Katalin Karikób. 1955
- Denis Mukwegeb. 1955
- Katalin Karikó's collaborator Drew Weissmanb. 1959
- Shinya Yamanakab. 1962