I believe Gerhard Domagk, my notable of choice, should be accepted for a variety of reasons. The definition of a notable person is a person who has had a positive influence on our lives and the progress of humanity. Gerhard shifted the paradigms of medical antibiotics and became the father of a whole new branch of medicine that has saved countless lives over the 86 years since it was first commercially available. He won a Nobel Prize for his efforts, along with developing several other antibacterial chemicals, and in the later parts of his life pursued the study of carcinomas (cancers originating on the skin or tissue lining organs). 

 

Gerhard Domagk created the first antibiotic, Prontosil, in 1932. It was later commercially released, in 1935, as he was still testing its capabilities. The antibiotic was the first of its kind, a gamechanger for the medical industry. Never before had there been such a powerful weapon against gangrene, cholera and many other horrors he had encountered during his service as a medic in the First World War, when most remedies including surgery usually had little to no effect. It was able to “protect mice and rabbits against lethal doses of staphylococci and haemolytic streptococci.” as stated by his biography on the Nobel Prize website. It was further refined, with thousands of variants made and tested all over the world. It was a medical milestone, creating an example to live up to for future developers of antibiotics.  

 

He was born in Lagow, a small town in the Brandenburg Marches. His Father was the headmaster of the school he attended, while his mother had heritage as a farmer. She was removed from her home by the Soviet Union in 1945 and died of starvation in a refugee camp. He became a medical student at Kiel University and later joined the army in WW1. After being wounded he joined the Sanitary Service and worked at field hospitals, where he found that nothing could really be done for everyone excepting the lightly wounded. Any sort of treatment usually entailed serious hazards or further injury or infection down the road.  

 

These experiences doubtlessly drove him for much of his career, possibly shaping his guiding motto: “Whatever contributes to the preservation of life is good; all that destroys life is evil.”. He held a humane and curious view of the world; near the end of his life he wrote "If I could start again, I would perhaps become a psychiatrist and search for a causal therapy of Mental Disease which is the most terrifying problem of our times.” This attitude is but one of many aspects that make him notable. 

 

Soon after he developed Prontosil, his daughter fell ill with a streptococcal infection. Fearing for her life, he administered a dose of the untested antibiotic. She recovered rapidly, and eventually made a complete recovery. His paper on the drug, “Ein Beitrag zur Chemotherapie der bakteriellen Infektionen” was later renowned for its thoroughness and careful, decisive evaluation of Prontosil. His findings were, at first, met with skeptisicm. The results of his findings were first confirmed independently in 1936 by two members of the British Medical Research Council, L. Colebrook and M. Kenny. 

 

Seven years after his discovery, Domagk won the 1939 Nobel Prize for Medicine. The Nazi government refused, due to their ban on German citizens accepting Nobel Prizes, due to the 1935 Peace Prize had been awarded to a German journalist, Carl von Ossietzky, for exposing the Nazi remilitarisation. Domagk was arrested and held in custody by the Gestapo for a week.  

 

He also developed Zephirol, an effective antibacterial surface-cleansing agent still used today. He set the foundation stones for two important antibiotics for tuberculosis, thiosemicarbazone and isoniazid. Both were used to great effect against the tuberculosis epidemic arising after WW2.   

After the receiving of his prize, he focused on tuberculosis treatments, due to the widely-used drugs becoming less effective as the bacteria grew more immune, and chemotherapy. He believed the ultimate aim of chemotherapy was to cure and control carcinomas and he was convinced that this would be achieved in the future.  

 

His work showed the world that more wonder weapons against disease could be found. Penicillin may not have even been taken seriously if this forerunner had not set an example that demonstrated that antibacterial chemicals were usable on a commercial scale, and could be much more effective than older materials. It encouraged decades of creation, testing and improvement for antibiotics. His legacy impacted the world, and still will for years to come.  

 

Ultimately, he made one of the defining medical breakthroughs of the 20th century. It opened the eyes of scientists to the amazing potential of the antimicrobial drug safe to use inside the body. It was on a par with the discovery of bacteria; finding out what caused disease, then finding how to cure it. This discovery shaped the world as we know it. Without this vital invention, people living today would have no answer to diseases apart from honestly feeble solutions. In conclusion, I believe he was one of the most important innovators in recent history. Presented with the facts, I am sure he will be accepted as a Notable due to his immense scientific and medical contributions to the world.