For more information on Selman Abraham Waksman, visit Britannica.com.
Selman Waksman
| Britannica Concise Encyclopedia: Selman Abraham Waksman |
| 5min Related Video: Selman Waksman |
| Scientist: Selman Abraham Waksman |
Russian–American biochemist (1888–1973)
Waksman, who was born at Priluki in Russia, emigrated to America in 1910; he graduated from Rutgers University in 1915 and obtained his American citizenship the following year. He studied for his doctorate at California University, receiving his PhD in 1918, and then returned to Rutgers, where he became professor of soil microbiology in 1930.
A new area in the science of soil microbiology was opened up with the discovery by René Dubos, in 1939, of a bacteria-killing agent in a soil microorganism. This stimulated renewed interest in Fleming's penicillin and, with the value of penicillin at last established, Waksman began a systematic search for antibiotics among microorganisms. In 1943 he isolated streptomycin from the mold Streptomyces griseus and found that it was effective in treating tuberculosis, caused by Gram-negative bacteria. This was a breakthrough as previously discovered antibiotics had proved useful only against Gram-positive bacteria. This work gained Waksman the 1953 Nobel Prize for physiology or medicine; he donated the prize money to a research foundation at Rutgers.
Waksman isolated and developed many other antibiotics, including neomycin. From 1940 until his retirement in 1958 he was professor of microbiology and chairman of the department at Rutgers; from 1949 he also held the post of director of the Rutgers Institute of Microbiology.
| Biography: Selman Abraham Waksman |
The American microbiologist Selman Abraham Waksman (1888-1973) received the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine for his discovery of streptomycin.
Selman Abraham Waksman was born on July 2, 1888 in Novaia-Priluka near Kiev in what is now the Ukraine. In 1908 he went to Odessa to study and garnered a matriculation diploma in 1910 from the Fifth Gymnasium in Odessa. He left almost immediately for the United States where he entered Rutgers College (now University) of Agriculture on a scholarship in 1911 and received a bachelor's degree in 1915. While completing work for a master's degree, awarded by Rutgers in 1916, he was a research assistant in soil bacteriology at the New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station.
On August 4, 1916, Waksman married Bertha Deborah Mitnik. That same year he became a citizen of the United States. He received a doctorate in biochemistry from the University of California in 1918. He returned to New Jersey as microbiologist at the experiment station and as lecturer in soil microbiology at the university. In 1922 his Principles of Soil Microbiology was published.
Waksman became an associate professor at Rutgers in 1925 and professor in 1930. From 1929 until 1939 his major research was on humus, and he published a volume entitled Humus in 1936. From 1931 until 1942 he spent summers at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, developing marine bacteriology. In 1940 he was named head of the department of microbiology at Rutgers.
In 1932 Waksman began to direct a project to study tuberculosis germs, particularly what happens to them in the soil. It was known that these microorganisms were somehow destroyed in soil, and Waksman learned that they were destroyed by other microbes. A series of studies on the effect of one kind of microbe on another led him to then begin, in 1939, a systematic search for antibiotics, the substances produced by microorganisms that inhibit or destroy other microorganisms. His search was primarily among the actinomycetes, a group of organisms that he first studied in 1915. This led to the discovery of several antibiotics, the best-known of which is streptomycin.
Waksman discovered streptomycin in 1943 and reported it in the January 1944 Proceedings of the Society of Experimental Biology and Medicine. It proved to be the first chemotherapeutic agent able to control tuberculosis and was useful in treating many other diseases, like influenza, meningitis and urinary tract infections.
In 1949 Waksman became director of the Institute of Microbiology founded that year at Rutgers with royalties from the antibiotics discovered by Waksman and his colleagues. He retired in 1958. On August 16, 1973, Waksman died suddenly in Hyannis, Massachusetts, of a cerebral hemorrhage. He was buried near the institute to which he had contributed so much. Waksman's honors over his professional career were many and varied, including the Nobel Prize (1952), recognition by the French Legion of Honor, the Lasker Award, and election as a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Further Reading
Selman A. Waksman, The Microbes Have Come to Israel, 1967; Waksman, The Antibiotic Era: A History of the Antibiotic and of Their Role in the Conquest of Infection in Other Fields of Human Endeavor, 1975; American Portrait: Dr. Selman Waksman (a videocassette), CBS, Inc., 1984. Waksman's autobiography, My Life with the Microbes (1954), traces the events leading to the discovery of streptomycin. Other sources of information include Theodore L. Sourkes, editor, Nobel Prize Winners in Medicine and Physiology, 1901-1965 (rev. ed. 1967); Magill, F. N., editor, The Nobel Prize Winners: Physiology or Medicine, Volume 2, 1944-1969, Salem Press (1991); and Nobel Foundation, Nobel Lectures: Physiology or Medicine, 1942-1962, Volume 3 (1964).
| Columbia Encyclopedia: Selman Abraham Waksman |
Waksman, Selman Abraham (wäks'mən), 1888-1973, American microbiologist, b. Priluka, Russia, grad. Rutgers (B.S. 1915), Ph.D. Univ. of California, 1918. He went to the United States in 1910 and was naturalized in 1916. He taught at Rutgers from 1918 and was a professor there from 1930. At the New Jersey State Agricultural Experiment station, where he became microbiologist in 1921, Waksman and his associates made studies of the decomposition of organic matter by microorganisms, of the origin and nature of humus, and of the production of substances detrimental to certain bacteria. For his discovery of the antibiotic streptomycin and of its value in treating tuberculosis, he was awarded the 1952 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. In addition to many scientific papers Waksman wrote Enzymes (with W. C Davison, 1926); Principles of Soil Microbiology (1927); The Soil and the Microbe (with R. L. Starkey, 1931); Humus (1936); Microbial Antagonisms and Antibiotic Substances (1945); The Conquest of Tuberculosis (1964); and The Actinomycetes (1967).
| Wikipedia: Selman Waksman |
| Selman Waksman | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born | 22 July 1888 Nova Pryluka, near Kiev, Ukraine, Russian Empire |
| Died | August 16, 1973 (aged 85) Woods Hole, Barnstable County, Massachusetts, United States of America |
| Residence | USA |
| Citizenship | US (after 1916) |
| Ethnicity | Jewish |
| Fields | Biochemistry and Microbiology |
| Notable awards | Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (1952) Leeuwenhoek Medal (1950) |
Selman Abraham Waksman (22 July 1888 – 16 August 1973) was a American biochemist and microbiologist whose research into organic substances—largely into organisms that live in soil—and their decomposition promoted the discovery of Streptomycin, and several other antibiotics. A professor of biochemistry and microbiology at Rutgers University for four decades, his work led to the discovery of over twenty antibiotics (a word which he coined) and procedures that have led to the development of many others. The proceeds earned from the licensing of his patents funded a foundation for microbiological research, which established the Waksman Institute of Microbiology located on Rutgers University's Busch Campus in Piscataway, New Jersey (USA). In 1952 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in recognition "for his discovery of "streptomycin" the first antibiotic active against tuberculosis", despite the fact that this medicine was indeed discovered by Albert Schatz, one of Waksman's graduate investigators working under his direction.
In 2005 Selman Waksman was designated an ACS National Historical Chemical Landmark in recognition of his significance for isolating more than fifteen antibiotics, including streptomycin, which was the first effective treatment for tuberculosis.[1]
Contents |
Biography
Selman Waksman was born on 22 July 1888 to Jewish parents in Nova Pryluka, a peasant village near Kiev, in the Russian Empire[2], now Ukraine. He immigrated to the United States in 1910, shortly after receiving his matriculation diploma from the Fifth Gymnasium in Odessa, Ukraine, and became a naturalised American citizen six years later.
Waksman attended Rutgers College (now Rutgers University), where he was graduated in 1915 with a Bachelor of Science (B.Sc.) in Agriculture. He continued his studies at Rutgers, receiving a Master of Science (M.Sc.) the following year. During his graduate study, he worked under J. G. Lipman at the New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station at Rutgers performing research in soil bacteriology. Waksman was then appointed as Research Fellow at the University of California, Berkeley from where he was awarded his Doctor of Philosophy (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's team 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.
Many awards and honors were showered on Waksman after 1940, most notably the Nobel Prize in 1952; the Star of the Rising Sun, bestowed on him by the emperor of Japan, and the rank of Commandeur in the French Légion d'honneur.[2][3]
Selman Waksman died on 16 August 1973 and was interred at the Crowell Cemetery in Woods Hole, Barnstable County, Massachusetts. His tombstone is inscribed simply as Selman Abraham Waksman: Scientist and following his dates of birth and death, an apt paraphrase (given his life's work) of a verse from the prophetic Hebrew Book of Isaiah, carved in both Hebrew and English stating "The earth will open and bring forth salvation".[2][4]
Streptomycin
Although Waksman had been studying the Streptomyces 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. Rutgers University and Waksman at first vehemently denied the allegations, but archival material from Selman Waksman's own papers, brought to public light by the Electronic New Jersey history project, indicate that Waksman and the university knew they faced trouble.[2] The litigation ended with a substantial settlement for Schatz and the official decision that Waksman and Schatz would be considered co-discoverers of streptomycin. Schatz made the discovery while working in Waksman's basement lab, and using Waksman's equipment [5].
In 2004, author Inge Auerbacher co-wrote the book Finding Dr. Schatz: The Discovery of Streptomycin and a Life It Saved with Schatz. The book chronicled his discovery of streptomycin and meeting Auerbacher, a holocaust survivor and recipient of his antibiotic. A documentary by the same name, "Finding Dr. Schatz", directed by Richard Colosi from Rochester, NY will be released in 2009.
Neomycin
Like streptomycin, it is derived from actinomycetes. Hubert A. Lechevalier, a graduate student worked with him. The discovery was published in the journal Science. [6]
Nobel Prize
There is contention as to whether or not Schatz should have been included in the Nobel Prize awarded in 1952 for "for his discovery of streptomycin, the first antibiotic effective against tuberculosis" 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 1951 he urged the building of a facility for work in microbiology, named the Waksman Institute of Microbiology, which is located on the Busch campus of Rutgers University in Piscataway, New Jersey.
Publications
Selman Waksman was author or co-author of over 400 scientific papers, as well as twenty-eight books[2] and 14 scientific pamphlets.
- 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)
External links
- Nobel Prize: Selman Waksman
- Waksman Foundation for Microbiology
- Streptomycin, Schatz v. Waksman, and the Balance of Credit for Discovery
- Findagrave: Selman Waksman
- Electronic New Jersey: Selman Waksman - Father of Antibiotics
- Electronic New Jersey: The Schatz Lawsuit
- No Nobel for You - Top 10 Nobel Snubs, Scientific American
References
- ^ Selman Waksman and Antibiotics - ACS National Historical Chemical Landmarks [1]
- ^ a b c d "The Foundation and Its History", at the Waksman Foundation for Microbiology website. (No further authorship information available), accessed 11 January 2007.
- ^ "Dr. Selman Waksman", at the Waksman Institute at Rutgers website. (No further authorship information available), accessed 17 January 2008.
- ^ This verse is significantly different than the original text of Isaiah 45:8 which states, in the King James Version, as "Drop down, ye heavens, from above, and let the skies pour down righteousness: let the earth open, and let them bring forth salvation, and let righteousness spring up together; I the LORD have created it."
- ^ "Time, and the great healer.". The Guardian. http://www.guardian.co.uk/weekend/story/0,3605,823114,00.html. Retrieved 2008-04-17. "In 1943, a young research scientist found a cure for TB. It should have been the proudest moment of Albert Schatz's life, but ever since he has watched, helpless, as another man got all the credit"
- ^ Man of the Soil Time (magazine);April 4, 1949
This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)
Learn More
 | neomycin (drug) |
| When was the term "antibiotic" first used? (anatomy) |
| streptomycin (drug) |
Help us answer these
 | What prizes did Selman A Waksman win? |
| Where can you find a copy of videocassette For American Portrait Dr Selman Waksman CBS Inc 1984? |
| Was bill selman in The Swingin' Medallions? |
Post a question - any question - to the WikiAnswers community:
Copyrights:
 |
 | Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. © 2006 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. All rights reserved. Read more |
 |
| Scientist. A Dictionary of Scientists. Copyright © Market House Books Ltd 1993, 1999, 2003. All rights reserved. Read more |
 |
| Biography. © 2006 through a partnership of Answers Corporation. All rights reserved. Read more |
 |
| Columbia Encyclopedia. The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition Copyright © 2003, Columbia University Press. Licensed from Columbia University Press. All rights reserved. www.cc.columbia.edu/cu/cup/. Read more |
 |
| Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Selman Waksman". Read more |
ADVERTISEMENT
Answer these
- When did Selman Waksman do his work?
- When did selman waksman die?
- How Did Selman Waksman Influence History?
- Who is Kelcie Selman?
Mentioned in
- neomycin (drug)
- When was the term "antibiotic" first used? (anatomy)
- streptomycin (drug)
- René Jules Dubos (French–American microbiologist)
- When were antibiotics invented? (history)
- Rutgers University (American history)
- antibiotic (drug)
- Year 1943 (in Science & Technology)
- tuberculosis
- Year 1941 (in Science & Technology)
- Microbiology (American history)
- Year 1952 (in Science & Technology)
- H. Lundbeck A/S
- New Brunswick Scientific Co., Inc.
