Louis Pasteur
1822–1895 · French · Victorian Era
Known for: Father of microbiology who developed pasteurization, germ theory, and vaccines for rabies and anthrax
Louis Pasteur saved more lives than any single person in history through germ theory, pasteurization, and vaccination. He proved that microorganisms cause disease, developed pasteurization to make food safe, and created vaccines for rabies and anthrax. He destroyed the theory of spontaneous generation with elegant swan-neck flask experiments.
He was fiercely patriotic—returning his honorary degree from the University of Bonn after the Franco-Prussian War—and personally courageous. When he tested his rabies vaccine on nine-year-old Joseph Meister, bitten by a rabid dog, failure would have meant murder charges. The boy survived, and Pasteur became a national hero.
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