Jonas Salk was an American medical researcher and virologist best known for developing the first successful polio vaccine in the 1950s. He was born in 1914 in New York and studied at public schools before earning his medical degree. Salk spent his career researching viruses and vaccines, developing the first influenza vaccine and then focusing on conquering polio. Through clinical trials in the 1950s, Salk's inactivated polio vaccine was found to be safe and effective, virtually eradicating the disease in the United States and many other countries. For this achievement, Salk became a celebrated medical pioneer but remained humble, dedicated to scientific research for improving human life. He continued working to develop vaccines for other diseases until his

1. 1914 - 1995

2.  He was an American
medical researcher
and a virologist who
is known as a
developer of the first
successful vaccine
against poliomyelitis.

3. Full Name Jonas Edward Salk
Birthdate October 28, 1914
Birthplace East Harlem, New York
Father’s Name Daniel B Salk
Occupation Garment worker
Mother’s Name Dora Press
Religion Orthodox Jewish - Polish
Name of Spouse Donna Lindsay
Occupation Social Worker
Children Peter Salk
Darrel Salk
Jonathan Salk

4.  HIGH SCHOOL
Townsend Harris High School
 COLLEGE
City College of New York
 MEDICAL SCHOOL
Dr Salk with his mentor Dr Thomas Francis
New York University
School of Medicine
"As a child I was not interested in science. I was
 INTERNSHIP merely interested in things human, the human side of
nature, if you like, and I continue to be interested in
Mt Sinai Hospital that.”
-Jonas Salk, MD
courtesy of his interview in Academy of Achievement

5. “. . .it was the laboratory work, in particular, which gave new direction to his
life.”
- Oshinsky
 He moved to the University of Michigan to join Dr. Francis and
worked on an army-commissioned project in Michigan to
develop an influenza vaccine in which it is a formalin-killed-
virus vaccine
 He accepted an offer from William McEllroy, dean of the
University of Pittsburg Medical School, to be an associate
research professor of bacteriology where he continued his
research on flu vaccines

6. "Paralytic poliomyelitis (its formal name) was, if not the
most serious, easily the most frightening public health
problem of the postwar era.”
- William O’Neill, American Historian
A girl infected by the virus
Jonas Salk talks to children with polio
“…scientists were in a In 1952 58,000 cases of polio
frantic race to find a
Parents carry a stricken child was reported with 3, 145
cure.” during the polio scare.
- O’neill people dying

7.  Polio Myelitis causes
permanent paralysis in
those it strikes or chronic
Polio patients in an Iron Lungs in 1952 shortness or breath often
leads to death
He used a killed- virus vaccine, in  By 1951, Salk was able to
which it was killed with formaldehyde classify the polio viruses
in 13 days. into 3 types
The first people to be inoculated with
Salk’s vaccine were his wife and 3
children.

8.  Salk and the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis
conducted the first field trial of Salk’s vaccine in 1952 involving
20,000 physicians and public health officers, 64,000 school
personnel and 220,000 volunteers with over 1, 800, 000
children in trial

9. In April 12, 1955, Dr Francis who monitor the
results, declared that. . .

10. The success brought Salk to instant stardom:
He received offers from Hollywood; Pleas from top
manufacturers to endorse their products; He was awarded
with a congressional medal for great ahievement and was
nominated for a Nobel Prize.
In 1957, he became a professor in Experimental Medicine in
University of Pittsburg.
He began to work on vaccines against viral infections in the
central nervous system.
Salk also conducted important research on the prevention and
treatment of influenza, multiple sclerosis, cancer, and
Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome.

11.  In the same year as Salk
developed the killed-virus
vaccine. He developed the
live-virus vaccine against
polio which is taken orally
rather than intravenously
in the same year as Salk
developed the killed-virus
vaccine.
 US did not permitted him
to make a field trial in the
country, and Sabin did it
in Europe which was
effective too.
Dr Albert Sabin

12.  Although Jonas Salk is credited
with ending the scourge of polio
because his killed-virus vaccine
was first to market, Albert
Sabin’s sweet-tasting and
inexpensive oral vaccine are
commonly used worldwide.
"The live virus vaccine is highly
effective in developed countries ...”
-Dr Salk in his press conference in 1980

13. By 1963, Salk opened an institute called Salk
Institute for Biological Studies under his
leadership.
"I thought how nice it would be if a
place like this existed and I was
invited to work there.“
- Dr Salk in 1963

14.  1956, awarded the Lasker Award
 1957, the Municipal Hospital building is renamed Jonas
Salk Hall and is home to the University's School of
Pharmacy and Dentistry
 1958, awarded the James D. Bruce Memorial Award
 1975, awarded the Jawaharlal Nehru Award and the
Congressional Gold Medal
 1976, Jonas Salk received the Academy of Achievement's
Golden Plate Award
 1976, named the Humanist of the Year by the American
Humanist Association

15.  1977, awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom from
President Jimmy Carter
 2006, the United States Postal Service issued a 63 cent
Distinguished Americans series postage stamp in his honor.
 2007, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and First
Lady Maria Shriver inducted Salk into the California Hall of
Fame
 2009, BBYO boys chapter chartered in his honor in
Scottsdale, Arizona, named "Jonas Salk AZA #2357"
 Schools in Mesa, Arizona; Spokane, Washington; Tulsa,
Oklahoma; Bolingbrook, Illinois; Levittown, New York; Old
Bridge, New Jersey; Merrillville, Indiana, and Sacramento,
California, are named after him.

16.  In 1966, New York times
referred to him as the
Father of Biophilosophy.
"As a biologist, he believes that his
science is on the frontier of tremendous
new discoveries; and as a philosopher,
he is convinced that humanists and
artists have joined the scientists to
achieve an understanding of man in all
his physical, mental and spiritual
complexity.”
- Howard Taubman, New York times Journalist

17. Jonas Salk died from heart failure at the age of
80 on June 23, 1995 in La Jolla and was buried
at El Camino Memorial Park in San Diego.

18.  http://www.squidoo.com/jonas-salk
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonas_Salk
 http://pabook.libraries.psu.edu/palitmap/bios/Salk__Jona
s.html
 http://www.libraries.uc.edu/liblog/wp-
content/uploads/2012/04/sabinandnixon.jpg
 http://img.tfd.com/mk/S/X2604-S-04.tif.png
 http://www.polioplace.org/people/jonas-salk-md
 David M. Oshinsky, Polio: An American Story, Oxford
University Press, 2005. Jeffrey Kluger, Splendid Solution:
Jonas Salk and the Conquest of Polio, Berkley Trade, 2006
 Jonas Salk interview with Academy of Achievement
 Taubman, Howard. "Father of Biophilosophy" The New
York Times, Nov. 11, 1966

19. “There are two types of medical specialists. There are those who
fight disease day and night, who assist mankind in times of
despair and agony and who preside over the awesome events of
life and death. Others work in the quiet detachment of the
laboratory; their names are often unknown to the general
public, but their research may have momentous consequences”
Dr Jonas Edward Salk
in Wisdom Magazine 1956