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RONALD ROSS – NOBEL LAUREATE IN MEDICINE AND PHYSIOLOGY

Nobel Prize: Sir Ronald Ross (1857-1932) received the 1902 Nobel Prize in Medicine and Physiology for his remarkable work on malaria.

Nationality: British

Education: From 1874 to 1881 he studied medicine at St. Bartholomew’s Hospital (London) and the Army Medical School.

Occupation: Professor of Tropical Medicine at Liverpool University (1902-1912); Vice-President of the Royal Society (1911-1913)

1. On August 20, 1897, Sir Ronald Ross made his landmark discovery that malaria is transmitted to people by Anopheles mosquitoes. On that day of discovery he wrote the following poetic words in his Journal:

“This day relenting God

Hath placed within my hand

A wondrous thing; and God

Be praised. At His command,

Seeking His secret deeds

With tears and toiling breath,

I find thy cunning seeds,

O million-murdering Death.

I know this little thing

A myriad men will save.

O Death, where is thy sting?

Thy victory, O Grave?”

(Ronald Ross, Memoirs, London, John Murray, 1923, 226).

Lord, who made high my fate;

For in the mighty small

Thou showed’st the mighty great.

Henceforth I will resound

But praises unto Thee;

Tho’ I was beat and bound,

Thou gavest me victory.”

(Ronald Ross, as cited in the Dictionary of Scientific Biography, 1975, vol. XI, p. 557, NY: Charles Scribner’s Sons).