Emil Gotschlich's basic research on Meningococcus, Gonococcus, Streptococcus, Haemophilus, Escherichia coli, protein antigens, and polysaccharides has contributed much to the knowledge of immunology, vaccines, and the bacterial pathogenesis of meningitis, gonorrhea, and other diseases.

Gotschlich was born on January 17, 1935, in Bangkok, Thailand, to Emil Clemens Gotschlich, and his wife Magdalene, née Holst, both expatriate Germans. He immigrated to the United States in 1950 and became a naturalized American citizen in 1955, the same year that he received his A.B. from the New York University College of Arts and Sciences. After receiving his M.D. from the New York University School of Medicine in 1959, he interned at Bellevue Hospital in New York City until 1960, then joined the staff of Rockefeller University, where he built the rest of his career, except for serving as a captain in the Department of Bacteriology of the U.S. Army Medical Corps at...