Alexander Fleming (1881-1955), Bacteriologist and discoverer of penicillin
Sir Alexander Fleming
Sitter in 20 portraits
Born in Ayrshire, Fleming served with the Royal Army Medical Corps at Boulogne (1914-18), studying the treatment of war wounds, and observed the dangers of cross-infection. In 1920 Fleming became a lecturer in bacteriology at St Mary's, and discovered lysozyme, the body's natural antibiotic in 1922. He became Professor in Bacteriology at London University in 1928, the year he discovered penicillin, the first antibiotic. Its successful development was delayed until the Second World War. Fleming shared the Nobel Prize for Medicine with Howard Florey and Ernst Chain in 1945. He was Director of the Wright-Fleming Institute of Microbiology (1946-54).
by Helen McDougall Campbell
pencil, 1944
NPG 3988
by Walter Stoneman
half-plate glass negative, July 1943
NPG x32631
by Walter Stoneman
half-plate glass negative, July 1943
NPG x32632
by Walter Stoneman
bromide print, July 1943
NPG x32769
by Howard Coster
quarter-plate film negative, 1944
NPG x136472
by Howard Coster
quarter-plate film negative, 1944
NPG x12322
by Howard Coster
quarter-plate film negative, 1944
NPG x12323
by Howard Coster
quarter-plate film negative, 1944
NPG x12324
by Howard Coster
half-plate film negative, 1954
NPG x131363
Alexander Fleming Laboratory Museum, London
Category
Medicine
Science
Groups
Discoverers and developers of penicillin
Place
East Ayrshire
Thematic collections
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