Howard Florey

The Right Honourable The Lord Florey OM FRS FRCP
Portrait by Julian Smith, 1930s
Born	Howard Walter Florey (1898-09-24)24 September 1898 Adelaide, South Australia
Died	21 February 1968(1968-02-21) (aged 69) Oxford, England
Education	Scotch College, Adelaide St Peter's College, Adelaide
Alma mater	University of Adelaide Magdalen College, Oxford Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge
Known for	Discovery of penicillin
Spouses	Mary Ethel Florey ​ ​ (m. 1926; died 1966)​ Margaret Jennings ​ (m. 1967)​
Children	2, including Charles du Vé
Relatives	Hilda Gardner (sister) Joan Gardner (niece)
Awards	See list Fellow of the Royal Society (1941) Knight Bachelor (1944) Cameron Prize for Therapeutics of the University of Edinburgh (1945) Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (1945) Lister Medal (1945) Royal Medal (1951) Copley Medal (1957) Life peer (1965) Order of Merit (1965)
Scientific career
Fields	Bacteriology immunology
Institutions	University of Adelaide University of Oxford University of Cambridge University of Sheffield Australian National University

Howard Walter Florey, Baron Florey, OM FRS FRCP (/ˈflɔːri/; 24 September 1898 – 21 February 1968) was an Australian pharmacologist and pathologist who shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1945 with Ernst Chain and Sir Alexander Fleming for his role in the development of penicillin.

Although Fleming received most of the credit for the discovery of penicillin, it was Florey and his team at the University of Oxford who made it into a useful and effective drug, ten years after Fleming had abandoned its development. They developed techniques for growing, purifying and manufacturing the drug, tested it for toxicity and efficacy on animals, and carried out the first clinical trials. In 1941, they used it to treat a police constable from Oxford. He started to recover, but subsequently died because Florey was unable, at that time, to make enough penicillin. Later trials in Britain, the United States and North Africa were highly successful.

A graduate of the University of Adelaide, Florey studied at the University of Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar and in the United States on a fellowship from the Rockefeller Foundation. In 1935, he became the director of the Sir William Dunn School of Pathology at Oxford. He assembled a multidisciplinary staff that could tackle major research projects. In addition to his work on penicillin, he researched many other subjects, most notably lysozyme, contraception and cephalosporins. He was involved in the founding of the Australian National University in Canberra and the establishment of its John Curtin School of Medical Research, and he served as chancellor of the Australian National University from 1965 until his death in 1968. He was elected a fellow of the Royal Society in 1941, and as its president from 1960 to 1965, he oversaw its move to new accommodations at Carlton House Terrace and the establishment of links with European organisations. In 1962, he became provost of The Queen's College, Oxford.

Florey's discoveries are estimated to have saved over 80 million lives, and he is regarded by the Australian scientific and medical community as one of its greatest figures. Australian prime minister Sir Robert Menzies said, "In terms of world well-being, Florey was the most important man ever born in Australia."^[1]