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Would you ever have thought such a thing possible? Alexander Fleming and the FRS

 

  • 12 May 2010, 13:00 - 14:00
Add to Calendar 05/12/10 01:00 PM 05/12/10 02:00 PM United Kingdom (GMT) Would you ever have thought such a thing possible? Alexander Fleming and the FRS <p>Today, Alexander Fleming is famous for the discovery of penicillin. But Kevin Brown, curator of the Alexander Fleming Laboratory Museum exposes the professional rivalries that threatened the career of one of the greatest medical microbiologists of all time.</p>
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The Hunterian Museum at the Royal College of Surgeons, 35-43 Lincoln's Inn Fields, London, WC2A 3PE

Today Alexander Fleming is famous for the discovery of penicillin.  But Kevin Brown, curator of the Alexander Fleming Laboratory Museum, exposes the professional rivalries that threatened the career of one of the greatest medical microbiologists of all time.

As the expert on wound infections in the Great War and as the dicoverer of the enzyme lysozyme, Alexander Fleming seemed to be a potential Fellow of the Royal Society.  His mentor and Chief Air Almoth Wright certainly thought so and nominated him a number of times - unsuccessfully.  It was not until 1943 when penicillin had achieved almost cult status as the wonder drug of the 1940s that Fleming could no longer be ignored.

Following this lecture, there will be an opportunity to visit and take a tour of the Alexander Fleming Laboratory Museum on 13, 18 or 19 May at 2pm.

The event is part of the Hunterian Museum's Lens of Life season, which has been organised as part of Capital Science and the Society's 350th anniversary celebrations in 2010.