Howard Florey

Howard Florey (24 September 1898 – 21 February 1968) was an Australian pharmacologist and pathologist who shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1945 with Sir Ernst Boris Chain and Sir Alexander Fleming for his role in the making of penicillin. Although Fleming received most of the credit for the discovery of penicillin, it was Florey who carried out the first ever clinical trials in 1941 of penicillin at the Radcliffe Infirmary in Oxford on the first patient, a police constable from Oxford. The patient started to recover but then died because Florey was unable, at that time, to make enough penicillin. It was Florey and Chain who actually made a useful and effective drug out of penicillin, after the task had been abandoned as too difficult.

Early life and education

Florey was born in Adelaide, South Australia, on 24 September 1898. He studied medicine at the University of Adelaide from 1917 to 1921. Florey continued his studies at Magdalen College, Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar, receiving the degrees of Bachelor of Arts, Master of Arts, and Doctor of Philosophy.

Career

In 1935, Florey was appointed professor of pathology at the University of Oxford, where he worked on research. His most important work was done during World War II, when he headed a team of scientists at Oxford that developed penicillin as an antibiotic. The team's work is said to have saved many lives during the war.

Personal life and death

Florey married Ethel Reed in 1926, and they had two children. He died of a heart attack in 1968.

Honours and awards

Florey's work earned him numerous awards and honours. In addition to the Nobel Prize, he was awarded the Order of Merit and was made a life peer by Queen Elizabeth II.

See also

• History of penicillin
• List of Australian Nobel laureates

External links

• Nobel Prize Biography

Howard Florey Resources
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