Selman Abraham Waksman was born on July 22, 1888, and died on August 16, 1973. He was a Russian-born American scientist, biochemist, and microbiologist. His research on how organisms in soil break down helped discover streptomycin and other antibiotics. He won the 1952 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for this work.

Waksman moved to the United States in 1910 and became a U.S. citizen in 1916. He taught biochemistry and microbiology at Rutgers University for 40 years. He discovered several antibiotics and helped create the modern way of naming them. He also developed methods that led to the creation of many more antibiotics. Money from licensing his patents funded a foundation for microbiological research. This foundation established the Waksman Institute of Microbiology at Rutgers University's Busch Campus in Piscataway, New Jersey, USA.

After winning the Nobel Prize, Waksman and his foundation were sued by Albert Schatz, one of his Ph.D. students and the discoverer of streptomycin, for not giving Schatz enough credit for the discovery.

In 2005, Waksman was honored with an ACS National Historic Chemical Landmark for his lab's work in isolating over 15 antibiotics, including streptomycin, the first effective treatment for tuberculosis.

Early life and education

Selman Waksman was born on July 22 (Old Style July 8), 1888, to Jewish parents in Nova Pryluka, Kiev Governorate, Russian Empire, which is now part of Vinnytsia Oblast, Ukraine. His parents were Fradia (London) and Jacob Waksman. In 1910, shortly after earning his diploma from the Fifth Gymnasium in Odessa, he moved to the United States and became a naturalized American citizen in 1916.

Waksman studied at Rutgers College (now Rutgers University), graduating in 1915 with a Bachelor of Science in agriculture. He continued his studies at Rutgers, earning a Master of Science in 1916. During his graduate work, he studied under J. G. Lipman at the New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station at Rutgers, focusing on soil bacteriology. In 1915–1916, he spent several months at the United States Department of Agriculture in Washington, DC, working with Charles Thom to research soil fungi. He later became a research fellow at the University of California, Berkeley, and received his doctor of philosophy in biochemistry in 1918.

Career

He became a teacher at Rutgers University in the Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology.

At Rutgers, Waksman's group found several antibiotics, including actinomycin, clavacin, streptothricin, streptomycin, grisein, neomycin, fradicin, candicidin, and candidin. Waksman helped discover streptomycin with Albert Schatz. Streptomycin was the first drug that worked against gram-negative bacteria and the first antibiotic used to treat tuberculosis. Waksman is known for creating the term "antibiotics" to describe medicines that kill bacteria from other living things, such as penicillin. However, the French dermatologist François Henri Hallopeau used the term in 1871 to describe a substance that stopped life from growing.

In 1931, Waksman started the division of Marine Bacteriology at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) while continuing his work at Rutgers. He was named a marine bacteriologist there and worked until 1942. He later became a trustee at WHOI and eventually a Life Trustee.

In 1951, Waksman used part of his patent money to create the Waksman Foundation for Microbiology. During a meeting of the foundation's board in July 1951, he suggested building a research center for microbiology, called the Waksman Institute of Microbiology. This institute is located on the Busch Campus of Rutgers University in Piscataway, New Jersey. Waksman was the first president of the foundation, and his son, Byron H. Waksman, took over the role from 1970 to 2000.

Research

Dr. Selman Waksman studied the Streptomyces family of organisms throughout his career, including the specific organism Streptomyces griseus. Streptomycin was found in S. griseus and shown to fight tuberculosis by Albert Schatz, one of Waksman’s graduate students. Elizabeth Bugie Gregory, another scientist, confirmed these results and was listed on a paper titled "Streptomycin, a Substance Exhibiting Antibiotic Activity Against Gram-Positive and Gram-Negative Bacteria" with Schatz and Waksman. However, Bugie was not included on a later 1944 paper about streptomycin’s effectiveness against tuberculosis in test tubes, as Schatz claimed she was not involved in that experiment. Bugie also did not receive credit for her work on streptomycin or appear on the patent proposal. She signed a written statement saying she had no role in discovering streptomycin, which was submitted by an attorney for the Rutgers Research and Endowment Foundation.

Albert Schatz disputed the credit for discovering streptomycin and its medical use, leading to a lawsuit in 1950. Waksman argued that Schatz’s role was limited, as he was away in the military in 1943 and only worked in the lab for three months. Waksman and Rutgers reached a settlement with Schatz, giving him financial compensation and recognition as a co-discoverer of streptomycin. Schatz received $120,000 for patent rights and 3% of future royalties. The medical journal The Lancet later stated that the Nobel committee made a mistake by not acknowledging Schatz’s contribution.

At the time, Waksman’s lab tested various antibiotics against different diseases using a method that compared antibiotics (rows) with diseases (columns). Schatz discovered the bacteria that produced streptomycin on farmland near his lab and tested it. However, Waksman later claimed sole credit for the discovery.

The conflict between Waksman and Schatz highlighted challenges in giving proper credit for scientific discoveries. It led schools and universities to develop clearer rules about patents and credit distribution, ensuring each person’s role in research was clearly defined to avoid future disputes.

Neomycin, another antibiotic, was discovered by Waksman and his graduate student Hubert A. Lechevalier. Their findings were published in the journal Science.

Waksman also studied how bacteria function in marine environments, focusing on their role in nutrient cycles. He and his colleagues, including Cornelia Carey, Margaret Hotchkiss, Yvette Hardman, and Donald Johnston, conducted research on bacteria in seawater, such as measuring their numbers and health, studying how copper affects bacterial growth, and analyzing how bacteria influence the nitrogen cycle. They also classified bacteria based on where they live—such as in seawater, plankton, or ocean sediments.

Other contributions from Waksman’s work include anti-fouling paint for the Navy, the use of enzymes in laundry detergents, and the use of Concord grape rootstock to protect French vineyards from fungal infections.

Awards and honors

Selman A. Waksman received many awards and honors, including the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1952. He also received the Star of the Rising Sun from the emperor of Japan and the rank of Commandeur in the French Légion d'honneur. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for his clever, organized, and successful research on soil microbes, which led to the discovery of streptomycin. During the Nobel Prize ceremony, Waksman was called "one of the greatest benefactors to mankind" because of his discovery of streptomycin. Schatz, who helped with the research, protested being left out of the award and wrote a letter to Gustaf VI Adolf, the King of Sweden. However, the Nobel Prize Committee did not change its decision, stating that Schatz was only a lab assistant working under a scientist. The Selman A. Waksman Award in Microbiology, given by the National Academy of Sciences, honors his contributions.

Publications

Selman Waksman wrote or worked with others to write more than 400 scientific papers, as well as 28 books and 14 short scientific writings.

• Enzymes (1926)
• Humus: Its Origin, Chemical Composition, and Importance in Nature (1936, 1938)
• Principles of Soil Microbiology (1927, 1932)
• My Life with the Microbes (1954) (an autobiography)

Personal life

Selman Waksman was married to Deborah B. Mitnik. They had one son, Byron H. Waksman, M.D., who worked as an assistant professor at Harvard University Medical School and taught Microbiology at Yale University Medical School.

Selman Waksman died on August 16, 1973, at a hospital in Hyannis, Massachusetts. He was buried at the Woods Hole Village Cemetery in Woods Hole, Massachusetts.