Stanford University microbiologist Stanley Falkow, famous for his work on bacterial resistance to antibiotics and known by his colleagues as the “father of molecular microbial pathogenesis,” died earlier this month. He was 84.
The American Society of Microbiology (ASM) wrote it was “saddened to learn of Stanley Falkow’s passing,” in a tweet posted Sunday (May 6). “His legacy includes both landmark microbiology discoveries and numerous scientists trained throughout the years.”
Falkow was born in 1934 in Albany, New York. In a commentary he wrote in 2008 on being selected to receive the Lasker-Koshland Award for Special Achievement in Medical Science, Falkow attributed his early inspiration in microbiology to reading Microbe Hunters—a dramatization of microbiological research written by American microbiologist Paul de Kruif—when he was 11 years old.
“The heroes of Microbe Hunters—Louis Pasteur, Robert Koch and others—became my heroes, and I dreamed of becoming a bacteriologist,” he wrote. “I was ...
