Peter Medawar
UK biologist, 1915–1987 / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Dear Wikiwand AI, let's keep it short by simply answering these key questions:
Can you list the top facts and stats about Peter Medawar?
Summarize this article for a 10 years old
Sir Peter Brian Medawar OM CH CBE FRS (/ˈmɛdəwər/; 28 February 1915 – 2 October 1987)[1] was a Brazilian-British biologist and writer, whose works on graft rejection and the discovery of acquired immune tolerance have been fundamental to the medical practice of tissue and organ transplants. For his scientific works, he is regarded as the "father of transplantation".[5] He is remembered for his wit both in person and in popular writings. Famous zoologists such as Richard Dawkins referred to him as "the wittiest of all scientific writers",[6] and Stephen Jay Gould as "the cleverest man I have ever known".[7]
Sir Peter Medawar | |
|---|---|
 Peter Medawar, 1960 | |
| Born | Peter Brian Medawar 28 February 1915 |
| Died | 2 October 1987 (aged 72) |
| Citizenship | British Brazilian (resigned) |
| Education | Magdalen College, Oxford (BA, DSc) |
| Known for | Immunological tolerance Organ transplantation |
| Spouse | |
| Awards |
|
| Scientific career | |
| Institutions | |
| Thesis | Growth promoting and growth inhibiting factors in normal and abnormal development (1941) |
| Doctoral students | |
| Other notable students | Rupert E. Billingham (postdoc)[3] |
| Influences | |
Medawar was the youngest child of a Lebanese father and a British mother, and was both a Brazilian and British citizen by birth. He studied at Marlborough College and Magdalen College, Oxford, and was professor of zoology at the University of Birmingham and University College London. Until he was partially disabled by a cerebral infarction, he was Director of the National Institute for Medical Research at Mill Hill. With his doctoral student Leslie Brent and postdoctoral fellow Rupert E. Billingham, he demonstrated the principle of acquired immunological tolerance (the phenomenon of unresponsiveness of the immune system to certain molecules), which was theoretically predicted by Sir Frank Macfarlane Burnet. This became the foundation of tissue and organ transplantation.[3] He and Burnet shared the 1960 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine "for discovery of acquired immunological tolerance".[8]