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Jonas Salk and the Invention of the Polio Vaccine

The National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis Founded

In 1938, National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis was founded by Franklin Roosevelt and Basil O’Connor to raise funds to support the research facility at Warm Springs, Georgia, as well as to support research on the poliovirus and provide assistance to victims of the disease in their home communities. This foundation expanded its funding efforts to award grants to individual scientists and university research centers. Notably the foundation funded the work of Albert Sabin and Jonas Salk who separately pioneered successful polio vaccines.

This foundation was eventually renamed The March of Dimes and continues to fund research to improve the health of mothers and babies worldwide.

References:
Wilson, D. J. (2009). Polio. ABC-CLIO.

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FDR buys a certificate enrolling him as "Founder No. 1" of the new National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis.