InfoPersons, originating from Poland
Hilary Koprowski
Born December 5, 1916 in WarsawDied April 11, 2013, in , Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
Virologist and immunologist of Polish origin and inventor of the world's first effective live polio vaccine. Hilary Koprowski grew up in Warsaw. He took piano lessons at the Warsaw Conservatory. He received his medical degree from the Faculty of Medicine at Warsaw University in 1939. He also received music degrees from the Warsaw Conservatory and, in 1940, from the Santa Cecilia Conservatory in Rome. He adopted scientific research as his life's work, though he never gave up music and composed several musical works.
In 1939, after the Nazi invasion of Poland Koprowski and his wife Irena, a medical doctor, fled because of their Jewish background. They first went to Rome, then in 1940 to Paris and finally, via Spain and Portugal, to Brazil, where Koprowski worked in Rio de Janeiro for the Rockefeller Foundation. His field of research for several years was finding a live-virus vaccine against yellow fever. After World War II the Koprowskis settled in New York, where Koprowski was hired as a researcher for Lederle Laboratories, the pharmaceutical division of American Cyanamid. Here Koprowski began his polio experiments which ultimately led to the discovery of the first
Nov. 2008 - Hilary Koprowski
Doctor Honoris Causa
of the Warsaw University.
Doctor Honoris Causa
of the Warsaw University.
oral polio vaccine. More information
Polonica stamps:
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S.Tomé e Príncipe 2008, 18 VII |
