The South African-born American epidemiologist and microbiologist Max Theiler (1899-1972) received the 1951 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine for developing a vaccine for yellow fever.

Max Theiler was born in Pretoria, South Africa, on January 30, 1899. His early schooling was in Pretoria and, because his father was Swiss, in Basel. Partly influenced by his father, who was a veterinary scientist, Max decided on a career in medicine, and in preparation he attended Rhodes University College in Grahamstown, South Africa, and the University of Capetown.

In 1911 Theiler enrolled at St. Thomas's Hospital, a well-known teaching hospital in London. In 1922 he was licensed to practice by London's Royal College of Physicians. The idea of medical practice, however, no longer appealed to him, and he enrolled in the London School of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene. Later that year he went to the United States, as he had been offered a position in...