D. Carleton Gajdusek (1923-2008)

Awarded the Prize “for his discoveries concerning new mechanisms for the origin dissemination of infectious diseases.”

American physician virologist. Gajdusek was born on September 9, 1923 at Yonkers, New York. He graduated from the University of Rochester in 1943, received his M.D. from Harvard University in 1946. In 1955, he worked as a visiting investigator at the Walter Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research in Melbourne, Australia. He was a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts Sciences. Gajdusek died on December 12, 2008 in Tromso, Norway.