Jonas Edward Salk

Jonas was one of the leading scientist of the 20th century and also the discoverer of the Polio vaccine. Jonas Edward Salk was born on October 28, 1914, in New York City. His parents were Daniel and Dora (née Press) Salk. He had two younger brothers Herman and Lee. His education was very important to his parents and they encouraged him to study. When he was 13 years old he was send to Townsend Harris High School, a public school school for children gifted with intelligence. He was the first one to attempt college in his family. After he finished his school, Salk entered the City College when he was 15 years old. He went to City College of New York where he got his Bachelor degree of Science for Chemistry in 1934. After Jonas got his degree …show more content…
The national testing expanded over the next two years, making it one of the largest clinical trials in medical history. Approximately 1.8 million children were given the vaccine during the test period. In 1953, Salk gave the experimental vaccine to himself, his wife and his 3 sons. Salk’s attempts were supported by the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis and its president Basil O’Connor. When the vaccine was accepted for general use in 1955, Salk became a national hero. President Dwight D. Eisenhower gave him a special honor at a ceremony in Rose Garden at the White House. Jonas Salk died due to a heart failure on June 23,1995 at his house in La Jolla, California. With his groundbreaking vaccine Jonas had earned his place in the medical history. But he will always be remembered as the man who stopped polio. Jonas is important in today’s society, because he was the person who created the polio vaccine and in now's days you can see there are people who have polio and some passed away because they didn’t got the polio vaccine at the right time. I also want to share this fact that the chairman of my old Apeejay School, Saket, New Delhi school Dr. Satya Paul also died because of polio