Elizabeth Kenny (1886-1952) was an Australian nursing sister who pioneered a method of treatment for infantile paralysis. Her determination and persistence helped to focus efforts on finding a cure or a preventive vaccine for polio.

Elizabeth Kenny was born at Warialda in New South Wales, the daughter of an Irish immigrant veterinary surgeon. She trained as a nurse in a private hospital in Sydney, graduating in 1911. After a period of bush nursing in the Queensland Outback, she served during World War I as a nurse to the Australian military forces, caring for the wounded on hospital ships. Her inventive talent emerged during this time, and she patented an improved stretcher for use in the field.

After the war Sister Kenny's attention was attracted to the treatment of poliomyelitis and cerebral palsy. A polio epidemic in Queensland in 1933 led her to concentrate her efforts in that field, and she...