Alexander Fleming
Alexander Fleming was a physician-scientist from Scotland who discovered the first antibiotic, penicillin, actually by accident. He was studying a bacteria called Staphylococcus, and unintentionally left it out in the open in his lab. When he came back to it, he found that there was a fungus that grew in the dish, but that there were no colonies near the fungus, only ones further away. The fungus was Penicillium, and it was the "juice" secreted by the fungus that killed the bacteria, which he called penicillin. Initially, he and penicillin didn't get much recognition, but Fleming would continue to research and study it. Although he was ultimately unable to stabilize and purify it to be used clinically, this was eventually done by many scientists working together, including Howard Florey and Ernst Chain. They, along with Fleming, would win the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1945. The drug is estimated to have saved over 500 million lives, and that if penicillin was not discovered, over 75% of the people alive today would not be alive because at least one of their parents/grandparents/etc. would have died to an infection. I think it is incredible how Fleming, along with many other scientists, were able to revolutionize the field of medicine and how disease is treated.
-Nihith
