2019-08-06 Tue

Alexander Fleming was a Scottish Scientist who is recognized for discovering Penicillin. He received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1945.

Alexander Fleming was born on August 6, 1881, in Scotland to Hugh Fleming and Grace Stirling Morton. He attended Louden Moor School, Darvel School, and Kilmarnock Academy before moving to London where he attended the Polytechnic Institute.

After working as a London Shipping Clerk, Fleming began his medical studies at St.Mary’s Hospital Medical School in 1901. There he won the 1908 gold medal as a top medical student at the University of London.

In 1921 Fleming discovered lysozyme, an enzyme present in body fluids such as saliva and tears that has a mild antiseptic effect. That was the first of his major discoveries. In 1928 Alexander Fleming (1881–1955) discovered penicillin, made from the Penicillium notatum mold. Fleming was recognized for that achievement in 1945, when he received the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine, along with Australian pathologist Howard Walter Florey and German-born British biochemist Ernst Boris Chain.

To honor his various commemorating postage stamps were issued around the world. One of them is 400 Faroese oyra stamp issued by Faroe Islands in 1983.

Image Source: wikipedia.org

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