Biography:Discovered and developed the first successful inactivated polio vaccine.
When the Salk vaccine was introduced, polio was considered the most frightening public health problem of the post-war United States.
He was uninterested in personal profit and when asked in a televised interview who owned the patent to the vaccine, Salk replied: "There is no patent. Could you patent the sun?"
1939-06-09 Medical researcher Jonas Salk (24) weds social worker Donna Lindsay
1970-06-29 Medical researcher Jonas Salk (55) weds painter and author Françoise Gilot (48) in Paris
Historical Events
1953-03-26 Dr. Jonas Salk announces that he has successfully tested a vaccine to prevent polio, clinical trials began the next year
1954-02-23 First mass inoculation against polio with the Jonas Salk vaccine takes place at Arsenal Elementary School in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
1954-04-26 Mass trials of Jonas Salk's anti-polio vaccine begin; the first shot is delivered in Fairfax County, Virginia; more than 443,000 children receive shots over three months
1955-04-12 Polio vaccine tested by Jonas Salk announced to be 'safe and effective' and is given full approval by the US Food and Drug Administration
1956-10-06 Scientist Albert Sabin announces that his oral polio vaccine is ready for testing; it would soon supplant Jonas Salk's vaccine in many parts of the world
Alfred Wegener
Douglas Lenat
Frederick Banting
Gary Kildall
Leslie P. Kaelbling
Yoshua Bengio