Max Theiler (1899-1972)

Awarded the Prize “for his discoveries concerning yellow fever and how to combat it.”

South African microbiologist. Theiler was born on January 30, 1899 in Pretoria, South Africa. He once studied at Rhodes University College and the University of Cape Town Medical School. He obtained his medical degree in 1922 at the London School of Tropical Medicine. In 1922 he joined the Department of Tropical Medicine at the Harvard Medical School. In 1930 he joined the International Health Division of the Rockefeller Foundation, becoming, in 1951, Director of Laboratories of the Rockefeller Foundation’s Division of Medicine and Public Health. Theiler died on August 11, 1972 at New Heaven, Connecticut.