Sir Alexander Fleming
Sciences & Discovery • Historical Archive • 🇬🇧 United Kingdom • 8 views

Sir Alexander Fleming 🇬🇧

Sir Alexander Fleming (Known as "Discoverer of Penicillin & Father of Antibiotics")
Bacteriologist, Physician, Professor of Bacteriology, Nobel Laureate
Born 6 August 1881 🇬🇧 Darvel (Ayrshire), United Kingdom
Passed Away 11 March 1955 London, United Kingdom
Lifespan 73 years old
8 views
Notice / Correction
"One sometimes finds what one is not looking for. When I woke up just after dawn on September 28, 1928, I certainly didn't plan to revolutionize all medicine by discovering the world's first antibiotic."

Archival Overview

Scottish bacteriologist whose discovery of penicillin from Penicillium mould in 1928 ignited the antibiotic revolution, saving hundreds of millions of lives from bacterial infections.

Biographical Record

Sir Alexander Fleming (1881–1955) served in the Royal Army Medical Corps during World War I, witnessing horrific wound infections. In September 1928, in his laboratory at St Mary's Hospital in London, Fleming returned from vacation to discover that an open petri dish of Staphylococcus had grown a mould that dissolved the surrounding bacteria.

He identified the mould as Penicillium notatum and extracted the active antibacterial substance, naming it 'penicillin'. Purified and mass-produced by Howard Florey and Ernst Chain in 1940, penicillin inaugurated modern antibiotic therapy. Fleming shared the 1945 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, while warning the world against drug resistance.

Key Life Milestones

28 September 1928 CE

Serendipitous Discovery of Penicillin

Observed that Penicillium notatum mould dissolved Staphylococcus colonies, identifying the first antibiotic.

10 December 1945 CE

Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine

Awarded the Nobel Prize jointly with Florey and Chain for the discovery of penicillin and its curative power.

Memorial Guestbook & Tributes

0 messages recorded

Leave a Respectful Tribute

No tributes recorded yet. Be the first to leave a message in honor of Sir Alexander Fleming.

Final Resting Place

Perpetual Memorial
St. Paul's Cathedral (Crypt, London)
London, United Kingdom
GPS: 51.5138, -0.0984
View on Memory Atlas
Archival Standards PastLegacies adheres to strict neutral biographical guidelines and legal standards of remembrance. Next-of-kin may request modifications or removal at any time via our expedited process.