Lyla Lindsey
Since 1915, eleven Australians have been awarded the Nobel Prize. The first Australian to win the prize was William Henry Bragg, who shared the 1915 Nobel Prize in Physics with his son, William Lawrence Bragg, making them the only father-son team to win a Nobel Prize. Another notable Australian recipient of the Nobel Prize is Patrick White, who won the 1973 Nobel Prize in Literature for his exploration of existential questions in a uniquely Australian context. Other Australians who have been awarded the Nobel Prize include Howard Walter Florey, who shared the 1945 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his role in the extraction of penicillin, and Professor Brian Schmidt, who was recognized for his contributions to the discovery of the accelerating expansion of the universe.
| Characteristics | Values |
|---|---|
| Number of Australians who won the Nobel Prize | 11 |
| Year of the first prize | 1915 |
| Field with the most prizes | Physiology or Medicine |
| Number of prizes in the field of Physiology or Medicine | 8 |
| First Australian to win the Nobel Prize | Sir William Henry Bragg |
| Year of the prize | 1915 |
| Field of the prize | Physics |
| Other winners of the same prize | Sir William Lawrence Bragg (Sir William Henry Bragg's son) |
| Australian pharmacologist who shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1945 | Howard Walter Florey |
| Other winners of the same prize | Ernst Boris Chain and Sir Alexander Fleming |
| Australian Nobel Prize winner in Literature | Patrick Victor Martindale White (also known as Patrick White) |
| Year of the prize | 1973 |
| Reason for the prize | "For an epic and psychological narrative art which has introduced a new continent into literature" |
| Other Australian winners of the Nobel Prize | Professor John Maxwell Coetzee FAHA, Professor Peter Charles Doherty AC FAA FRS, Rolf Martin Zinkernagel AC FAA, Professor Sir John Warcup Cornforth AC FAA FRS, Professor Vladimir Prelog FRS, Sir Bernard Katz FRS, Professor Aleksandr Mikhailovich Prokhorov, Professor Brian Schmidt AC FAA FRS, Professor Elizabeth Blackburn AC FAA FRS |
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What You'll Learn
- Howard Walter Florey, pharmacologist, Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1945
- William Henry Bragg, physicist, Nobel Prize in Physics in 1915
- Patrick White, writer, Nobel Prize in Literature in 1973
- Professor Brian Schmidt, astrophysicist, Nobel Prize in Physics in 2011
- Professor Barry Marshall, physician, Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2005
Howard Walter Florey, pharmacologist, Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1945
Howard Walter Florey, born on 24 September 1898 in Adelaide, Australia, was a renowned pharmacologist and pathologist. He is known for his significant contributions to the isolation and purification of penicillin, which revolutionized medicine and saved countless lives. For this groundbreaking work, Florey, along with Ernst Boris Chain and Alexander Fleming, was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1945.
Florey's early education took place at St. Peter's Collegiate School in Adelaide. He then pursued his medical studies at Adelaide University, graduating in 1921. His academic prowess earned him a Rhodes Scholarship to Magdalen College, Oxford, where he obtained B.Sc. and M.A. degrees in 1924. He continued his academic journey at Cambridge, becoming a fellow at Gonville and Caius College in 1927 and receiving his Ph.D. the same year.
Throughout his career, Florey held various prestigious positions. He served as a professor of pathology at Oxford University from 1935 to 1962. During this time, he collaborated with Chain and Fleming to develop penicillin, which had been discovered by Fleming in 1928. Their efforts led to the successful small-scale manufacture of penicillin, and they worked with government assistance to produce sufficient quantities for World War II to treat war wounds.
In addition to the Nobel Prize, Florey received numerous honours and recognitions throughout his life. He was knighted in 1944 and made a life peer in 1965, assuming the title of Baron. He served as provost of Queen's College, Oxford, and chancellor of the Australian National University, Canberra. Florey was also president of the Royal Society from 1960 to 1965 and held fellowships with various esteemed medical organizations. His contributions to penicillin and its widespread availability have left an indelible mark on medicine and science.
Howard Walter Florey passed away on 21 February 1968 in Oxford, England, but his legacy continues to inspire and impact the world of medicine and beyond. His work on penicillin and his dedication to scientific research have solidified his place as one of Australia's greatest figures in the scientific and medical community.
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William Henry Bragg, physicist, Nobel Prize in Physics in 1915
William Henry Bragg was an Australian physicist who, along with his son Lawrence Bragg, won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1915. They were awarded the prize for their "services in the analysis of crystal structure by means of X-ray".
William Henry Bragg was born in Australia and had a prolific career in physics. As early as 1895, he was working on wireless telegraphy, and in 1897, he gave the first recorded public demonstration of wireless telegraphy in Australia. He also conducted research on X-rays, which would eventually lead to his Nobel Prize. In 1909, he took up the position of Cavendish Chair of Physics at the University of Leeds, where he continued his work on X-rays. He invented the X-ray spectrometer and, together with his son Lawrence, founded the new science of X-ray crystallography, which involves the analysis of crystal structure using X-ray diffraction.
In 1914, with the outbreak of World War I, both of William's sons, Lawrence and Robert, were called into the army. The following year, William was appointed Quain Professor of Physics at University College London. He contributed to the war effort by joining the Board of Invention and Research set up by the Admiralty in July 1915. Unfortunately, in September of the same year, his younger son Robert died of wounds sustained during the Gallipoli Campaign.
In November 1915, William Henry Bragg and his son Lawrence were jointly awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics. The award recognised their groundbreaking work in analysing crystal structures using X-ray technology. This achievement has been commemorated in various ways, including the naming of the Bragg Gold Medal for Excellence in Physics awarded by the Australian Institute of Physics, and the Bragg Laboratories at the University of Adelaide.
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Patrick White, writer, Nobel Prize in Literature in 1973
Patrick Victor Martindale White, an Australian novelist and playwright, won the 1973 Nobel Prize in Literature. He was born in London to affluent Australian parents and spent his childhood in Sydney and on his family's rural properties. At the age of 13, he was sent to an English public school and later studied modern languages at Cambridge.
White's body of work challenged the dominant realist prose tradition of his home country and was satirical of Australian society. He explored themes of religious experience, personal identity, and the conflict between visionary individuals and a materialistic, conformist society. His literary style was influenced by the modernism of James Joyce, D. H. Lawrence, and Virginia Woolf.
White's growing fame was primarily based on seven novels, including "The Aunt's Story," "The Tree of Man," and "Voss." "The Aunt's Story" portrays the life of a lonely, unmarried Australian woman whose experiences extend to Europe and America. "The Tree of Man" is an epic and psychologically discerning account of an Australian couple's long life together and their struggle against various difficulties. "Voss" depicts a fanatical explorer meeting his fate in the Australian wilderness.
White's latest books at the time, "Riders in the Chariot" and "The Solid Mandala," displayed his unique artistic tendencies and his ability to build tension. His last two books, "The Vivisector" and "The Eye of the Storm," were among his greatest feats, with their large scope and intense scrutiny of their subjects.
White founded the Patrick White Award, an annual literary prize, in 1975 with his Nobel Prize money. The award recognises writers who have made significant contributions to Australian literature.
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Professor Brian Schmidt, astrophysicist, Nobel Prize in Physics in 2011
Professor Brian Schmidt is an astrophysicist who won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2011. He shared the prize with Adam Riess and Saul Perlmutter for their discovery of the accelerating expansion of the universe.
Schmidt grew up in Missoula, Montana, and later moved to Anchorage, Alaska. He received his PhD in astrophysics from Harvard University in 1993 and moved to Australia the following year. In Australia, he was involved in building the High-Z Supernova Search Team, which made the discovery that earned him the Nobel Prize. The team's observations contradicted existing models, which predicted that the expansion of the universe would be slowing down. By monitoring the brightness and measuring the redshift of supernovae, they discovered that these ancient stars and their galaxies were accelerating away from our reference frame. This discovery transformed our understanding of the universe, revealing that about 70% of its mass is in a previously unknown form, now referred to as 'Dark Energy'.
Schmidt is a Professor at the Australian National University in Weston Creek, Australia, and holds dual citizenship of Australia and the United States. He was appointed a Companion of the Order of Australia in the 2013 Australia Day Honours and was named "Australian of the Year" for 2011 by The Australian newspaper. He is also a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) and a member of various scientific academies, including the Australian Academy of Science and the United States National Academy of Sciences.
In addition to the Nobel Prize, Schmidt has received numerous other accolades. He shared the 2015 Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics with Adam Riess and the High-Z Supernova Search Team. He was also awarded the Dirac Medal by the University of New South Wales in 2012 and the Niels Bohr Institute Medal of Honour in 2015.
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Professor Barry Marshall, physician, Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2005
Australian physician Barry James Marshall, alongside his long-time collaborator Robin Warren, was awarded the 2005 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for discovering the link between the bacterium Helicobacter pylori and gastritis and peptic ulcer disease.
Marshall was born in Kalgoorlie, Western Australia, in 1951. He attended the University of Western Australia School of Medicine, where he received a bachelor's degree in 1974. From 1977 to 1984, he worked at Royal Perth Hospital, and he later taught medicine at the University of Western Australia, where he also served as a research fellow.
In the early 1980s, Marshall became intrigued by Warren's research, which had first observed the presence of spiral-shaped bacteria in a patient's stomach lining biopsy in 1979. They began working together to determine the significance of these bacteria. They conducted a study of stomach biopsies from 100 patients that systematically showed the presence of the bacteria in almost all patients with gastritis, duodenal ulcer, or gastric ulcer. Marshall also cultured the microbe and gave it its name, which included a new genus because of its similarity to Campylobacter and Vibrio-like cholera.
Marshall and Warren's findings contradicted the commonly held belief that peptic ulcers were caused by excess gastric acid released in the stomach due to emotional stress, spicy foods, or other factors. Instead, they proposed that the bacterium Helicobacter pylori played a major role in causing many peptic ulcers. To persuade sceptics, Marshall drank a culture of H. pylori and within a week began experiencing stomach pain and other symptoms of acute gastritis. Stomach biopsies confirmed that he had gastritis and that the affected areas of his stomach were infected with H. pylori. He then took antibiotics and was cured.
Marshall's work has led to one of the most radical and important changes in medical perception in the last 50 years, firmly establishing the view that gastric disorders are infectious diseases.
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Frequently asked questions
Since 1915, 11 Australians have been awarded the Nobel Prize.
Patrick Victor Martindale White won the 1973 Nobel Prize in Literature.
Howard Walter Florey won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1945.
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