Jonas Salk, Conquering Polio Jonas Salk, the man who saved the world in the 1990’s from a widespread epidemic was born on October 28, 1914. He put all of his hardworking talent into saving lives one step at a time and growing up as any one person would, leading him to his legacy. Jonas Salk led to the improvement of medicine and became a hero for saving many peoples lives from the Polio disease. When Salk created the Polio vaccine, he became the leading scientist of the 20th century. Salk was born in a family that believed that education was essential in ones life (A&E Television Network). His mother’s name was Dora Salk and his father’s name was Daniel Salk. Jonas was the oldest out of the …show more content…
Jonas Salk was an American physician, immunologist and a virologist, someone who studies viruses. He set some goals for himself: “To establish an institute that would explore questions about the basic principles in life,” and “to make it possible for biologists and others to work together in a collaborative environment that would encourage them to consider the wider implications of their discoveries for the future of humanities (www.salk.edu).” Because of his goal, that he clearly stated, Salk became referred to as the “Father of Biophilosophy.” He was also named as the “Father of Biophilosophy” because he also didn’t patent his vaccine. Salk would have been richer by $7 billion if his vaccine were patented. (www.forbes.com) If he would have patented it, then he would be able to make more money using it for different countries and organizations because more vaccines would have to be …show more content…
On May 6, 1985, President Ronald Reagan proclaimed that day to be "Jonas Salk Day" and it made many people realize that Jonas Salk had a passion for Science (Reagan.utexas.edu, Ronald Reagan). A couple years before Salk left his legacy, he made a plan to create a “Socratic academy where supposedly alienated two cultures of science and humanism will have a favorable atmosphere for cross fertilization.” (Famous Scientists). In 1963, he launched the Salk Center for biological studies called The Salk Institute. There he focused on diseases like sclerosis and cancer (A&E Television Networks). He also wrote books there himself like Man Unfolding in 1972 and The Survival of the Wisest in 1973. Salk built an institution that he dreamed of in 196. (A&E Television Networks). He built it in San Diego, California because that is where Mayor Chales Dail lived and he was a Polio survivor (Salk Institute for Biological Studies). His Salk Institute reflects overall on the broad, humanistic interests. The Salk Institute is still up and running today. It was installed to build his dream research complex for the investigation of biological phenomena (Salk Institute for Biological Studies). Other research that Jonas Salk did there was on multiple sclerosis and autoimmune