Legacy of Jonas Salk
Jonas Salk, 1955
Polio was eliminated from North America by 1994. Dr. Salk is remembered as a civil hero, receiving many awards for his service to the public. However, he was not treated as such by the scientific world, and never received a Nobel prize or was granted membership to the US National Academy of Sciences.
In 1965, the success of the polio vaccine allowed Dr. Salk to establish the world renowned Salk Institute for biological studies in La Jolla, California.
Dr. Salk worked up until his death in 1995. His final project was an attempt to once again revolutionize the thinking around vaccines by working on what he called a therapeutic vaccine for AIDS-- a vaccine given after HIV infection in order to control or delay the onset of AIDS.
Dr. Salk is remembered as a kind and unselfish person who worked outside of the scientific conventions of his time despite the opinions of his peers and made invaluable contributions to public health.
Check out Jonas Salk's Google Doodle!
References
Dulbecco, R. Jonas Salk (1914-95). Nature 376, 216 (1995). https://doi-org.libproxy2.usc.edu/10.1038/376216a0
Tan, Siang Yong, MD/JD, and Nate Ponstein, MD. "Jonas Salk (1914-1995): A Vaccine Against Polio." Singapore Medical Journal vol 60, no.1 (2019): 9-10. doi: http:// doi.org/10.11622/smedj.2019002