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Portrait of Selman A. Waksman
Photo: New York World-Telegram and the Sun staff photographer: Higgins, Roger, photographer., Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division. New York World-Telegram and the Sun Newspaper Photograph Collection. http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/cph.3c19821 · Public domain via Wikimedia Commons

Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine · 1952

Selman A. Waksman

His systematic hunt through soil microbes produced streptomycin, the first drug that could cure tuberculosis.

The Nobel citation: “for his discovery of streptomycin, the first antibiotic effective against tuberculosis”
Born
July 22, 1888, Priluka, Russian Empire (now Nova Pryluka, Ukraine)
Died
August 16, 1973, Hyannis, MA, USA
Affiliation at the time
Rutgers University, USA

Medicine prize

1952

Awarded alone.

Age that year

64years

Born in 1888.

Headline credited impact

3.8–6.2million lives saved

Lives saved by antibiotic treatment of tuberculosis worldwide, which streptomycin began. How it was built

Sources cited

26

Fact-checked September 24, 2026.

  • Denied a Russian university place because he was Jewish, he emigrated in 1910, worked on a cousin's New Jersey farm and studied agriculture at Rutgers.
  • His lab tested about 10,000 soil microbes before finding streptomycin, the first drug that could cure tuberculosis.
  • He gave the word 'antibiotic' its modern meaning: a substance made by one microbe that stops or kills other microbes.
  • Britain's 1948 streptomycin trial is often described as the first randomized controlled trial: random numbers decided which patients got the scarce drug.
  • His student Albert Schatz sued him in 1950 and won legal recognition as streptomycin's co-discoverer; the 1952 Nobel went to Waksman alone.

The breakthrough

Streptomycin, the first cure for tuberculosis, found by screening soil microbes (1943)

Soil is crowded with microbes that compete for food and space, and some make chemicals that kill their rivals. Waksman had studied one group of soil microbes, the actinomycetes, since he was a student, and he found that 20 to 50 percent of them could stop other microbes from growing. In 1939, inspired partly by his former student René Dubos, who had found a germ-killing substance in soil bacteria, Waksman launched a deliberate search for such natural weapons that could work as medicines. His team grew soil microbes one after another and tested each against disease-causing bacteria, then checked whether any active substance was safe for animals. It was like panning for gold: wash a huge amount of gravel, patiently, and keep only the rare nuggets. About 10,000 microbes were studied. The first finds, actinomycin in 1940 and streptothricin in 1942, killed bacteria but were too toxic. In 1943 his graduate student Albert Schatz isolated strains of a microbe called Streptomyces griseus that made a new substance, which Waksman named streptomycin. It stopped many bacteria that penicillin could not touch, including the germ that causes tuberculosis, and it was far less toxic to animals. By the end of 1944 doctors were testing it on patients. Along the way, Waksman gave the word 'antibiotic' its modern meaning: a substance made by one microbe that stops or kills others.[1],[3],[4],[5],[7]

“The conquest of the "Great White Plague", undreamt of less than 10 years ago, is now virtually within sight.”
Selman A. Waksman, Closing summary of his Nobel Lecture on streptomycin, 12 December 1952. "Great White Plague" was a common name for tuberculosis.[3]

What it meant for humanity

Before 1944, tuberculosis had no cure. It was the top killer of young adults in Europe and North America, and at one point it was killing more than 400 people a day in the United States. Doctors could offer bed rest and procedures to collapse diseased lungs, and sanatoriums were full of patients who could only wait. Streptomycin was the first drug that worked. Its most dramatic effect was on forms of TB that had been almost always fatal: by 1952 about 80 percent of patients with miliary TB, which spreads through the bloodstream, were healing, and many patients with TB meningitis, which had always killed, now recovered. Testing streptomycin also changed medicine itself. Postwar Britain could afford only a little of the costly American drug, so its Medical Research Council let chance decide who received it, in a study often described as the first randomized controlled trial. That trial also showed that TB germs quickly became resistant to a single drug, which led doctors to combine streptomycin with other drugs, first PAS and then isoniazid. Treating TB with a combination of drugs is still the rule today. The World Health Organization estimates that TB treatment, with HIV drugs for patients who also have HIV, has saved about 83 million lives since 2000, though today's standard regimens rely on later drugs such as isoniazid and rifampicin. Streptomycin also worked against plague, tularemia and other infections that penicillin could not reach, and it is still used in some TB treatment. Waksman's screening approach helped launch the golden age of antibiotics, as companies searched soil microbes for new medicines. Actinomycin from his lab led to a cancer drug still approved for Wilms tumor and rhabdomyosarcoma. Royalties from his discoveries built what is now the Waksman Institute of Microbiology at Rutgers.

  • In Britain's 1948 trial, 4 of 55 patients given streptomycin (7 percent) died within six months, compared with 14 of 52 patients (27 percent) on bed rest alone.[26]
  • TB meningitis had always been fatal; by 1952, 20 to 75 percent of patients recovered with streptomycin, depending on how early they were treated, and about 80 percent with miliary TB healed.[4]
  • Streptomycin worked against infections penicillin could not treat, including tularemia (63 of 67 early cases recovered), plague, typhoid and cholera.[3],[6],[7],[25]
  • The WHO estimates that TB treatment, with HIV drugs for patients who also have HIV, has saved about 83 million lives since 2000; streptomycin, first given to a patient in 1944, opened the era of TB drugs.[3],[13],[14],[15],[16]
  • Actinomycin, isolated in his lab in 1940, was too toxic for infections, but a later form, actinomycin D (dactinomycin), is approved for Wilms tumor, Ewing sarcoma and other cancers.[6],[7],[24]
  • About 18 antibiotics were discovered under his direction, and his screening method helped set off the golden age of antibiotics from actinomycetes, including tetracyclines and macrolides.[5],[23]

Impact in numbers

Streptomycin turned tuberculosis from a disease doctors could only nurse into one they could treat, and its failures taught medicine to fight TB with drug combinations, which still cure most patients today. We credit Waksman with only 5 percent of all lives saved by TB drugs, because credit for streptomycin is shared with Albert Schatz and the doctors who proved it worked, and because most lives saved since the 1960s owe more to later drugs such as isoniazid and rifampicin. Some of his impact resists counting. His systematic soil-screening method set the pattern for the golden age of antibiotic discovery. Actinomycin from his lab became a cancer drug, neomycin became a common skin antibiotic, and royalties founded a research institute that still bears his name. His earlier work on soil microbes and humus helped build soil microbiology as a science. The harms are real but smaller: inner-ear damage, early drug resistance, and his treatment of Schatz.

HealthFundamental science

Each number is the laureate’s credited share of a real-world outcome, cumulative to 2025. The whole outcome, the share of credit, and the reasoning are shown so you can check the arithmetic. Outcomes shared with other laureates are counted once on the impact page.

  • Low confidenceDirectModeledHealth

    Lives saved by antibiotic treatment of tuberculosis worldwide, which streptomycin began

    3.8–6.2

    million lives saved, credited share

    That is 5% of 75–124 million lives saved since 1946.

    How this number was built

    WHO estimates that efforts against TB saved 83M lives in 2000-2024 (s14, s15), counting deaths averted by TB treatment, plus HIV drugs for TB patients with HIV, against no treatment and a 43% untreated case-fatality rate (s16). Low: 83M minus an assumed 8M (about 10%) for the HIV-drug part (people with HIV were 5.8% of TB cases in 2024, assumed higher earlier) = 75M; nothing before 2000 or for 2025. High: 83M + 3.3M for 2025 (the 2000-2024 average) + 7.8M for the 1990s (Dolin et al.: 88M cases and 30M deaths vs 88M x 0.43 = 37.8M untreated) + 30.1M for 1947-1989 (1990 gap: 7.5M x 0.43 = 3.2M vs 2.5M deaths, about 0.7M a year x 43 years) = about 124M. Share 0.05: Schatz isolated streptomycin, Mayo and MRC doctors proved it, Merck made it, and most lives since the 1960s owe more to isoniazid and rifampicin.[12],[13],[14],[15],[16],[17]

    Sources: Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, via PubMed Central; Current Topics in Medicinal Chemistry, via PubMed Central; World Health Organization; World Health Organization; World Health Organization; Bulletin of the World Health Organization, via PubMed

The double edge

Waksman's record has two problems. The larger one is credit. Albert Schatz, his graduate student, did the 1943 experiments that isolated streptomycin and first showed it worked against the TB germ. According to journalist Peter Pringle, Waksman then pushed Schatz out of the spotlight and, without telling him, accepted 20 percent of the patent royalties through a Rutgers foundation. Schatz sued in 1950. The settlement named him co-discoverer and paid him a lump sum plus part of future royalties. Even so, the 1952 Nobel Prize went to Waksman alone. Historians still disagree: some call Schatz the true discoverer, while others argue that in a large, routine screening program credit belongs to the person who designed and directed it. The second problem is medical. Streptomycin can damage the inner ear, causing dizziness and hearing loss, and used alone it let TB germs become resistant within months. Doctors reduced these harms with purer drug, smaller doses and combination therapy.

  • Moderate

    The credit dispute with his student Albert Schatz

    Schatz isolated streptomycin in Waksman's lab in 1943 and was first author of the paper announcing it. Pringle reports that Waksman later sidelined him and quietly took 20 percent of royalties. Schatz sued in 1950; the settlement named him co-discoverer and gave him a payment and 3 percent of royalties. The Nobel committee regarded him as a junior assistant. Trinity College Dublin scholar William Kingston argues credit rightly belongs to the director of a routine screening program.[1],[5],[18],[19],[20],[21],[22]

  • Moderate

    Inner-ear damage in early treatment

    Streptomycin can damage the nerves for balance and hearing. In Britain's 1948 trial many patients had side effects, the most important being inner-ear damage that caused giddiness. By 1952 purer drug, smaller doses and shorter courses had greatly reduced these harms.[4],[12]

  • Minor

    Rapid drug resistance when used alone

    Given on its own, streptomycin often failed because TB germs became resistant, especially after about four months of treatment. This early lesson in antibiotic resistance led to combination therapy, first with PAS and later with isoniazid.[4],[12],[13]

Against the odds

Waksman grew up in Novaya Priluka, a Jewish town in the Pale of Settlement, the part of the Russian Empire where Jews were legally allowed to live. From 1887 the government capped Jewish students at 10 percent of places in secondary schools and universities inside the Pale, and many schools took no Jews at all. Like many Jewish teenagers, Waksman studied mostly with private tutors and sat the state exams as an outside candidate, before examiners who were often hostile. On his first try in 1907, an examiner quizzed him about the river that runs through Berlin, and he failed. During the 1905 revolution, a time of repeated pogroms led by police and Cossacks, he helped organize a Jewish youth self-defense group. He finally earned his diploma in Odessa in 1910, but he was denied admission to a Russian university because he was Jewish. After his mother died, he emigrated to the United States, landing in Philadelphia in November 1910. He worked on a cousin's farm, then paid his way through Rutgers with a scholarship and jobs such as greenhouse assistant at 20 cents an hour. America gave him the chance Russia had refused. His hometown's Jewish community did not survive: it was destroyed during the German occupation in World War II, and a mass grave from 1941 lies in the village.

  • 1887

    Quota

    From 1887, Russian rules capped Jews at 10 percent of secondary-school and university places inside the Pale, and many schools admitted none. Waksman studied mostly with private tutors, earned his diploma as an outside candidate, and was denied university admission in Russia because he was Jewish.[2],[8],[9]

  • 1907

    Discrimination

    Examiners of Jewish outside candidates were often antisemitic and harsh, and many candidates failed. On Waksman's first attempt in 1907, an unfriendly examiner quizzed him on the river running through Berlin, and he did not pass.[7],[9]

  • 1905

    Persecution

    During the Russo-Japanese War and the 1905 revolution, a time of repeated pogroms led by police and Cossacks in which many towns were plundered, he helped set up a Jewish youth self-defense group and learned to handle weapons.[5]

  • 1911

    Poverty

    After arriving in America in 1910, he paid his way through Rutgers with a state scholarship and jobs, including greenhouse work at 20 cents an hour, while renting a room for three dollars a month.[2],[7]

  • 1941

    Other

    Novaya Priluka's Jewish community, more than 2,000 people in 1926, was destroyed during the German invasion of Ukraine in World War II; a mass grave dug in 1941 lies in the village.[5],[11]

Jewish background

Both parents JewishIdentified as Jewish, secular

Waksman was born to Jewish parents, Jacob Waksman and Fradia London, in Novaya Priluka, a small Jewish town in the Russian Empire's Pale of Settlement. His father, who spent much of his time at synagogue, taught him the Bible and Talmud. He attended a traditional heder, had his bar mitzvah at 13, and as a teenager taught Hebrew at a school he helped run for poor children. In America he kept strong Jewish ties: he collected Judaica (later given to Brandeis University), wrote a biography of the persecuted Jewish scientist Waldemar Haffkine, visited the Holy Land in 1938, and received an honorary degree in Jerusalem and honors from scientific societies in Israel.[2],[5],[7],[10]

Key dates

  1. July 22, 1888

    Born in Novaya Priluka, a Jewish town in the Russian Empire's Pale of Settlement (now Nova Pryluka, Ukraine).[1],[5],[10]

  2. 1905

    During the pogroms of the 1905 revolution, helps organize a Jewish youth self-defense group.[5]

  3. November 2, 1910

    After earning his diploma as an outside candidate in Odessa, emigrates and lands in Philadelphia.[2],[5]

  4. 1915

    Graduates from Rutgers College in agriculture; his senior project counts the microbes living in soil.[2],[7],[8]

  5. 1918

    Earns a PhD in biochemistry at the University of California and returns to Rutgers to teach soil microbiology.[2]

  6. 1939

    Launches a systematic search for germ-killing substances made by soil microbes, with support from Merck.[3],[4],[5]

  7. 1940

    His lab isolates actinomycin, the first antibiotic from an actinomycete; too toxic for infections, a later form becomes a cancer drug.[3],[6],[24]

  8. 1943

    Graduate student Albert Schatz isolates streptomycin-producing strains of Streptomyces griseus in Waksman's lab.[1],[4],[18]

  9. 1944

    Streptomycin is announced in January; in November, doctors at the Mayo Clinic give it to a human TB patient for the first time.[3],[13],[18]

  10. 1948

    Britain's Medical Research Council reports its streptomycin trial, often described as the first randomized controlled trial.[13],[26]

  11. 1949

    Reports the discovery of neomycin with Hubert Lechevalier; Rutgers creates an Institute of Microbiology funded by royalties, with Waksman as director.[2],[5]

  12. 1950

    Schatz sues Waksman and Rutgers; a settlement that year recognizes Schatz as co-discoverer of streptomycin.[19],[20],[21]

  13. 1952

    Awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for the discovery of streptomycin.[1],[4]

  14. August 16, 1973

    Dies in Hyannis, Massachusetts; the Rutgers institute is renamed the Waksman Institute the next year.[1],[8]

Sources

  1. 1.Selman A. Waksman - Facts · NobelPrize.org (Nobel Prize Outreach)
  2. 2.Selman A. Waksman - Biographical · NobelPrize.org (from Nobel Lectures, Physiology or Medicine 1942-1962, Elsevier, 1964), 1964
  3. 3.Streptomycin: Background, Isolation, Properties, and Utilization (Nobel Lecture, 12 December 1952) · NobelPrize.org, 1952
  4. 4.The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1952 - Award ceremony speech by Professor A. Wallgren · NobelPrize.org, 1952
  5. 5.Waksman, Selman Abraham (Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography entry by Byron H. Waksman and Hubert A. Lechevalier) · Charles Scribner's Sons, via Encyclopedia.com, 2008
  6. 6.Waksman, Selman Abraham (1888-1973) (World of Microbiology and Immunology entry) · Gale, via Encyclopedia.com
  7. 7.Selman Abraham Waksman (Research Starters, from Great Events from History: The Twentieth Century) · EBSCO / Salem Press
  8. 8.Selman Waksman: Rutgers Alumnus, Researcher and Nobel Prize Winner Developed System to Discover Antibiotics · Rutgers University, 2016
  9. 9.Numerus Clausus (Encyclopaedia Judaica entry) · Encyclopaedia Judaica, via Encyclopedia.com
  10. 10.Pale of Settlement (Encyclopaedia Judaica entry) · Encyclopaedia Judaica, via Encyclopedia.com
  11. 11.Novaja Priluka (Nova Pryluka), Ukraine · International Jewish Cemetery Project, JewishGen / IAJGS
  12. 12.The MRC randomized trial of streptomycin and its legacy: a view from the clinical front line (Crofton J., J R Soc Med 99:531-534) · Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, via PubMed Central, 2006
  13. 13.Lessons from seven decades of antituberculosis drug discovery (Barry C.E., Curr Top Med Chem) · Current Topics in Medicinal Chemistry, via PubMed Central, 2011
  14. 14.Tuberculosis (fact sheet) · World Health Organization, 2026
  15. 15.Global tuberculosis report 2025: fact sheet · World Health Organization, 2025
  16. 16.Technical appendix: methods used by WHO to estimate the global burden of TB (Global tuberculosis report 2024) · World Health Organization, 2024
  17. 17.Global tuberculosis incidence and mortality during 1990-2000 (Dolin P.J., Raviglione M.C., Kochi A., Bull World Health Organ 72:213-220) · Bulletin of the World Health Organization, via PubMed, 1994
  18. 18.Etymologia: Streptomycin (Henry R., Emerg Infect Dis 25(3):450) · Emerging Infectious Diseases, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2019
  19. 19.Experiment Eleven (review of Peter Pringle's book) · Science News, 2012
  20. 20.Experiment Eleven: an extraordinary case of scientific deceit (Peter Pringle, The Science Show) · ABC Radio National, 2013
  21. 21.Streptomycin: discovery and resultant controversy (Wainwright M., Hist Philos Life Sci 13:97-124) · History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences, via PubMed, 1991
  22. 22.Streptomycin, Schatz v. Waksman, and the balance of credit for discovery (Kingston W., J Hist Med Allied Sci 59:441-462) · Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences, via PubMed, 2004
  23. 23.What was the Golden Age of Antibiotics, and how can we spark a new one? (Dattani S.) · Our World in Data, 2024
  24. 24.Dactinomycin · National Cancer Institute, 2019
  25. 25.Streptomycin (Waters M., Tadi P., StatPearls) · StatPearls Publishing, via PubMed, 2023
  26. 26.Streptomycin treatment of pulmonary tuberculosis: a Medical Research Council investigation (BMJ 1948;2:769-782), full article scans · The James Lind Library, 1948

Fact-checked on September 24, 2026 by a separate AI fact-checking pass that re-opened the sources, with 10 corrections made. How we check

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