1. Hilary Koprowski was a Polish virologist and immunologist active in the United States who demonstrated the world's first effective live polio vaccine.
27 Facts About Hilary Koprowski
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Hilary Koprowski authored or co-authored over 875 scientific papers and co-edited several scientific journals.
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Hilary Koprowski was the target of accusations in the press related to the "oral polio vaccine AIDS hypothesis", which posited that the AIDS pandemic originated from live polio vaccines such as Hilary Koprowski's.
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Hilary Koprowski was born in Warsaw to an educated, assimilated Jewish family.
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Hilary Koprowski's mother Sonia, was a dentist from Berdichev.
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Hilary Koprowski received a medical degree from Warsaw University in 1939.
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Hilary Koprowski received music degrees from the Warsaw Conservatory and, in 1940, from the Santa Cecilia Conservatory in Rome.
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Hilary Koprowski adopted scientific research as his life's work, but never gave up music and composed several musical works.
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In July 1938, while in medical school, Hilary Koprowski married Irena Grasberg.
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Hilary Koprowski died on April 11,2013, aged 96, in Wynnewood, near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, of pneumonia.
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Hilary Koprowski is the former chair of the department of radiation oncology at Christiana Hospital in Delaware.
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Hilary Koprowski viewed the live vaccine as more powerful, since it entered the intestinal tract directly and could provide lifelong immunity, whereas the Salk vaccine required booster shots.
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Hilary Koprowski developed his polio vaccine by attenuating the virus in brain cells of a cotton rat, Sigmodon hispidus, a New World species that is susceptible to polio.
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Hilary Koprowski administered the vaccine to himself in January 1948 and, on 27 February 1950, to 20 children at Letchworth Village, a home for disabled persons in Rockland County, New York.
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Hilary Koprowski was president of Biotechnology Foundation Laboratories, Inc, and head of the Center for Neurovirology at Thomas Jefferson University.
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Hilary Koprowski authored or co-authored over 875 scientific papers and co-edited several scientific journals.
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Hilary Koprowski served as a consultant to the World Health Organization and the Pan American Health Organization.
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Hilary Koprowski received many honorary degrees, academic honors, and national decorations, including the Order of the Lion from the King of Belgium, the French Order of Merit for Research and Invention, a Fulbright Scholarship, and appointment as Alexander von Humboldt Professor at the Max Planck Institute for Biochemistry in Munich.
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Hilary Koprowski received numerous honors in Philadelphia, including the Philadelphia Cancer Research Award, the John Scott Award and, in May 1990, the most prestigious honor of his home city, the Philadelphia Award.
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Hilary Koprowski was a Fellow of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia, which in 1959 presented him with its Alvarenga Prize.
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Hilary Koprowski was a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the New York Academy of Sciences, and the Polish Institute of Arts and Sciences of America.
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Hilary Koprowski held foreign membership in the Yugoslav Academy of Sciences and Arts, the Polish Academy of Sciences, the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences, and the Finnish Society of Sciences and Letters.
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On June 3,1983, Hilary Koprowski received an honorary doctorate from the Faculty of Medicine at Uppsala University, Sweden.
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On 22 March 1995, Hilary Koprowski was made a Commander of Finland's Order of the Lion by Finland's president.
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On 25 February 2000 Hilary Koprowski was honored with a reception at Philadelphia's Thomas Jefferson University celebrating the 50th anniversary of the first administration of his oral polio vaccine.
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On 13 September 2004, Hilary Koprowski was presented with the Pioneer in NeuroVirology Award by the International Society for NeuroVirology at the 6th International Symposium on NeuroVirology held in Sardinia.
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On 1 May 2007, Hilary Koprowski was awarded the Albert Sabin Gold Medal by the Sabin Vaccine Institute in Baltimore, Maryland.