CalendarZ

    • English English
    • español español
    • français français
    • português português
    • русский русский
    • العربية العربية
    • 简体中文 简体中文
  • Home
  • Religious Holidays
  • National Holidays
  • Other Days
  • On This Day
  • Tools
    • Date converter
    • Age Calculator
  1. Home
  2. On This Day
  3. June
  4. 15
  5. Thomas Huckle Weller

Births on June 15

Thomas Huckle Weller
1915Jun, 15

Thomas Huckle Weller

Thomas Huckle Weller, American biologist and virologist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2008)
Thomas Huckle Weller (June 15, 1915 – August 23, 2008) was an American virologist. He, John Franklin Enders and Frederick Chapman Robbins were awarded a Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1954 for showing how to cultivate poliomyelitis viruses in a test tube, using a combination of human embryonic skin and muscle tissue.Weller was born and grew up in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and then went to the University of Michigan, where his father Carl Vernon Weller was a professor in the Department of Pathology. At Michigan, he studied medical zoology and received a B.S. and an M.S., with his masters thesis on fish parasites. In 1936, Weller entered Harvard Medical School, and in 1939 began working under John Franklin Enders, with whom he would later (along with Frederick Chapman Robbins) share the Nobel Prize. It was Enders who got Weller involved in researching viruses and tissue-culture techniques for determining infectious disease causes. Weller received his MD in 1940, and went to work at Children's Hospital in Boston. In 1942, during World War II, he entered the Army Medical Corps and was stationed at the Antilles Medical Laboratory in Puerto Rico, earning the rank of Major and heading the facility's Departments of Bacteriology, Virology and Parasitology. After the War, he returned to Children's Hospital in Boston, and it was there in 1947, that he rejoined Enders in the newly created Research Division of Infectious Diseases. After several leading positions, in July 1954, he was appointed Tropical Public Health Department Head at the Harvard School of Public Health. Weller also served from 1953 to 1959 as Director of the Commission on Parasitic Diseases of the American Armed Forces Epidemiological Board. In 1954 he was awarded the George Ledlie prize in recognition of his research on rubella, polio and cytomegalovirus(CMV) viruses.

In addition to his research on polio, for which he won the Nobel Prize, Weller also contributed to treating schistosomiasis, and Coxsackie viruses. He was also the first to isolate the virus responsible for varicella.

In 1945, Weller married Kathleen Fahey, who died in 2011 aged 95. They had two sons and two daughters.

References

  • Thomas Huckle Weller
  • Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine

Choose Another Date

Events on 1915

  • 12Jan

    Women's suffrage

    The United States House of Representatives rejects a proposal to require states to give women the right to vote.
  • 28Jan

    United States Coast Guard

    An act of the U.S. Congress creates the United States Coast Guard as a branch of the United States Armed Forces.
  • 18Mar

    Battle of Gallipoli

    World War I: During the Battle of Gallipoli, three battleships are sunk during a failed British and French naval attack on the Dardanelles.
  • 20Mar

    General relativity

    Albert Einstein publishes his general theory of relativity.
  • 17May

    Herbert Henry Asquith

    The last British Liberal Party government (led by Herbert Henry Asquith) falls.

About CalendarZ

CalendarZ

In addition of showing the dates of significant holidays and events; CalendarZ enables you easily check out the time remaining to a certain date and all other details.

Our Partners

WoWDeals : All Deals in One Place

Quick Navigation

  • Home
  • Upcoming Holidays
  • Religious Holidays
  • National Holidays
  • Other Days
  • Blog
  • Age Calculator
  • On This Day

© 2025 CalendarZ. All Rights Reserved. Contact Us / Privacy Policy

English   |   español   |   français   |   português   |   русский   |   العربية   |   简体中文