Background
Howard Florey was born on September 24, 1898 in Adelaide, South Australia, Australia. He was the son of Joseph Florey, a boot manufacturer and Bertha Mary Wadham Florey.
pathologist Pharmacologist scientist
Howard Florey was born on September 24, 1898 in Adelaide, South Australia, Australia. He was the son of Joseph Florey, a boot manufacturer and Bertha Mary Wadham Florey.
Howard Florey was educated at Kyre College Preparatory School (now Scotch College) and then at St Peter's College. In 1921 Howard got Bachelor of Science degree, graduating from Adelaide University. Also, the scientist attended Magdalen College from 1922 till 1923.
Florey also attended University of Pennsylvania since 1925 to 1926. The following year, in 1927, Howard Florey attained Doctor of Philosophy degree, finishing Cambridge University.
In 1927 Howard Florey was appointed Huddersfield Lecturer at the Department of Pathology, University of Cambridge. Florey left Cambridge in 1931 to become professor of pathology at the University of Sheffield, returning to Oxford in 1935 as director of the new Sir William Dunn School of Pathology. There, at the recommendation of Hopkins, his productive collaboration began with the German biochemist Ernst Chain. Florey remained interested in antibacterial substances even as he expanded his research projects into new areas, such as cancer studies. The scientist held the positon of a director till 1962. In 1962 he was elected Provost of Queens' College.
During the late 1940s and 1950s, Florey made trips almost every year to Australia to provide consultation to the new Australian National University, to which he was appointed Chancellor in 1965. In May of 1940 the scientist conducted an important experiment to test promising new drug. He infected eight mice with lethal doses of streptococci bacteria, then treated four of them with penicillin. The following day, the four untreated mice were dead, while three of the four mice treated with penicillin had survived. Though one of the mice that had been given a smaller dose died two days later, Florey showed that penicillin had excellent prospects and began additional tests. In 1941 he carried out the first ever clinical trials on the first patient.
Quotations:
"People sometimes think that I and the others worked on penicillin because we were interested in suffering humanity. I don't think it ever crossed our minds about suffering humanity. This was an interesting scientific exercise, and because it was of some use in medicine is very gratifying, but this was not the reason that we started working on it."
"Developing penicillin was a team effort, as these things tend to be."
Howard was a president of Royal Society from 1960 till 1965. Tapping his experience as an administrator, Florey invigorated this prestigious scientific organization by boosting its membership and increasing its role in society. In 1965 he accepted the presidency of the United Kingdom Family Planning Association and used the post to promote more research on contraception and the legalization of abortion.
Quotes from others about the person
"In terms of world well-being, Florey was the most important man ever born in Australia." - Sir Robert Menzies
In 1926 Howard married Mary Ethel Hayter Reed, who died in 1966. Later, in 1967 he married Margaret Jennings. Margaret died of a heart attack in 1968. Florey had two children from the first marriage – Charles and Paquita.