Awards & Winners

Robert Austrian

Date of Birth 12-April-1916
Place of Birth Baltimore
(Maryland, Baltimore County, United States of America, Area code 410, Area code 443, Area code 667, Area codes 410, 443, and 667)
Nationality United States of America
Also know as Robert B Austrian, Dr. Robert Austrian
Profession Physician
Robert Austrian was an American infectious diseases physician and, along with Maxwell Finland, one of the 2 most important researchers into the biology of Streptococcus pneumoniae in the 20th century. Austrian received his MD from Johns Hopkins University and did his fellowships in Infectious Diseases at Johns Hopkins and New York University. He went on to found the Infectious Diseases division and fellowship program at the University of Pennsylvania and was chairman of the department of research medicine there from 1962-1986. Austrian’s awards include the Maxwell Finland plenary lecture at the Infectious Diseases Society of America annual session in 1974. entitled “Random gleanings from a life with the pneumococcus” and the 1978 Albert Lasker Medical Research Award. His Lasker award was for the development and clear demonstration of the efficacy of a purified vaccine of capsular polysaccharides in the prevention of pneumococcal disease. Prior to the Austrian polysaccharide vaccine scientists had prepared simpler whole bacteria and capsular polysaccharide vaccines but they were not accepted as standard of care by the medical community. Several medical authorities touted this era as “the end of infectious diseases” due to the remarkable mortality benefits derived from new antimicrobials and anti-parasitics and vaccine research was not thought to be worthwhile.

Awards by Robert Austrian

Check all the awards nominated and won by Robert Austrian.

1978


Lasker-DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award
(For his perseverance in the development and clear demonstration of the efficacy of a purified vaccine of capsular polysaccharides in the prevention of pneumococcal diseases.)