Science, Medicine & Engineering
Peerless
Max Theiler
1899 – 1972
The yellow fever vaccine, and the first Nobel Prize won by anyone born in Africa
Peerless is level 1 of 4 in the South Africa Hall of Fame: changed the field itself. Tell the country's story without them and the story breaks. See how the levels work.
Why they are here
More than a hundred subcultures in chicken embryos before the 17D strain worked. It is still the yellow fever vaccine, and it won the first Nobel ever awarded to an African-born scientist.
Max Theiler was born in Pretoria in January 1899, and went to Pretoria Boys High School, Rhodes University College and the University of Cape Town medical school, qualifying in 1918.
Working with Hugh Smith, he attenuated the yellow fever virus through more than a hundred subcultures in chicken embryos, arriving in 1937 at the safe and immunising 17D strain. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1951 for it, the first African-born Nobel laureate. He died in New Haven in August 1972.
Working with Hugh Smith, he attenuated the yellow fever virus through more than a hundred subcultures in chicken embryos, arriving in 1937 at the safe and immunising 17D strain. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1951 for it, the first African-born Nobel laureate. He died in New Haven in August 1972.
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