Who is Sir Ronald Ross?

Did you know that the man behind the research on the transmission of malaria was born in India on May 13, 159 years ago?   He won the Nobel prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1902 for this work.

Sir Ronald Ross was born in Uttarakhand, India on May 13 1857.  Though he is actually British by nationality he spent a large part of his early career in the Indian Medical Service and it was in India that he did the majority of his malaria research. 

His breakthrough discovery was identifying how malaria is transmitted via mosquitoes specifically via malaria parasites which laid the foundation of the methods to fight the disease today. 

A link to his acceptance speech for the Nobel prize is here

Sir Ronald Ross has left quite legacy including: 

• World Mosquito Day (August 20) to commemorate the day that he made the breakthrough discovery
• The Sir Ronald Ross Institute of Parasitology Osmanai University Begumpet, Hyderabad is named in his honour.  
• There is a memorial at SSKM Hospital Kolkata to commemorate the discovery
• University Liverpool named their new Bio-Science facility Ronald Ross Building in 2010 in his honour
• The Ross Institute and Hospital for Tropical Diseases was opened in London in 1926 though has unfortunately since lost its separate identity due to financial issues/reorganisation/absorption by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine

So today on May 13 lets remember Indian born Sir Ross Ronald on his birthday for his pioneering work on malaria which done in India.

If you would like additional information about Malaria, please head to the blog I wrote a couple of weeks ago to celebrate World Malaria Day here.

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