Sir Howard Florey OM KBE FRS FAA (1898–1968) pioneered the development and use of antibiotics. Although popular mythology credits Alexander Fleming, it was Florey and his team who developed the miracle drug, penicillin. Nicknamed 'the bushranger of research', Florey was born and educated in Adelaide and went to Oxford in 1921 as a Rhodes scholar. In 1935 he was appointed to the chair of pathology there. By 1941, he and his wife, Ethel were undertaking clinical trials, demonstrating the anti-microbial properties of penicillin. Following successful trials of the drug, Florey persuaded American pharmaceutical firms to manufacture penicillin on a large scale and it subsequently saved thousands of lives during the Second World War. In recognition of this work, he was awarded the 1945 Nobel Prize for Medicine. In 1944 Florey was asked to advise on the creation of what became the John Curtin School of Medical Research and was then instrumental in expanding that proposal to include the establishment of the Australian National University. He served as Chancellor of the university from 1965.
