Jonas Salk

Jonas Edward Salk (born Jonas Salk; October 28, 1914 – June 23, 1995) was an American virologist and medical researcher who developed one of the first successful polio vaccines.

He was born in New York City and attended the City College of New York and New York University School of Medicine.

"What made the place special," he writes, "was the student body that had fought so hard to get there... driven by their parents.... From these ranks, of the 1930s and 1940s, emerged a wealth of intellectual talent, including more Nobel Prize winners—eight—and PhD recipients than any other public college except the University of California at Berkeley."

Salk entered CCNY at the age of 15, a "common age for a freshman who had skipped multiple grades along the way."

As a child, Salk did not show any interest in medicine or science in general.

He said in an interview with the Academy of Achievement, "As a child I was not interested in science. I was merely interested in things human, the human side of nature, if you like, and I continue to be interested in that."

After graduating from City College of New York, Salk enrolled in New York University School of Medicine.

According to Oshinsky, NYU based its modest reputation on famous alumni, such as Walter Reed, who helped conquer yellow fever.

Tuition was "comparatively low, better still, it did not discriminate against Jews... while most of the surrounding medical schools—Cornell, Columbia, University of Pennsylvania, and Yale—had rigid quotas in place."

Salk enrolled in CCNY, where he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in chemistry in 1934.

Oshinsky writes that "for working-class immigrant families, City College represented the apex of public higher education. Getting in was tough, but tuition was free. Competition was intense, but the rules were fairly applied. No one got an advantage based on an accident of birth."

At his mother's urging, he put aside aspirations of becoming a lawyer and instead concentrated on classes necessary for admission to medical school.

However, according to Oshinsky, the facilities at City College were "barely second rate."

There were no research laboratories.

The library was inadequate.

The faculty contained few noted scholars.

In 1947, Salk accepted a professorship at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, where he undertook a project beginning in 1948 to determine the number of different types of poliovirus.

For the next seven years, Salk devoted himself to developing a vaccine against polio.

Salk was immediately hailed as a "miracle worker" when the vaccine's success was first made public in April 1955, and chose to not patent the vaccine or seek any profit from it in order to maximize its global distribution.

The National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis and the University of Pittsburgh looked into patenting the vaccine, but since Salk's techniques were not novel, their patent attorney said, "If there were any patentable novelty to be found in this phase it would lie within an extremely narrow scope and would be of doubtful value."

An immediate rush to vaccinate began in the United States and around the world.

Many countries began polio immunization campaigns using Salk's vaccine, including Canada, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, West Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and Belgium.

By 1959, the Salk vaccine had reached about 90 countries.

An attenuated live oral polio vaccine was developed by Albert Sabin, coming into commercial use in 1961.

Less than 25 years after the release of Salk's vaccine, domestic transmission of polio had been eliminated in the United States.

In 1963, Salk founded the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla, California, which is today a center for medical and scientific research.

He continued to conduct research and publish books in his later years, focusing in his last years on the search for a vaccine against HIV.

Salk campaigned vigorously for mandatory vaccination throughout the rest of his life, calling the universal vaccination of children against disease a "moral commitment".

Salk's personal papers are today stored in Geisel Library at the University of California, San Diego.

Jonas Salk was born in New York City to Daniel and Dora (née Press) Salk.

His parents were Jewish; Daniel was born in New Jersey to immigrant parents, and Dora, who was born in Minsk, emigrated to the United States when she was twelve.

Salk's parents did not receive extensive formal education.

Jonas had two younger brothers, Herman and Lee, a child psychologist.

The family moved from East Harlem to 853 Elsmere Place in the Bronx, with some time spent in Queens at 439 Beach 69th Street, Arverne.

When he was 13, Salk entered Townsend Harris High School, a public school for intellectually gifted students.

Named after the founder of City College of New York (CCNY), it was "a launching pad for the talented sons of immigrant parents who lacked the money—and pedigree—to attend a top private school", according to David Oshinsky, his biographer.

In high school, "he was known as a perfectionist...who read everything he could lay his hands on," according to one of his fellow students.

Students had to cram a four-year curriculum into just three years.

As a result, most dropped out or flunked out, despite the school's motto "study, study, study."

Of the students who graduated, however, most had the grades to enroll in CCNY, then noted for being a highly competitive college.