Ronald Ross is best known for his discovery of the method by which malaria is transmitted, research for which he was awarded the 1902 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine. Ross's interest in bacteriology led him to study the causes of malaria, a disease that was widespread in India where he lived. His determination that the affliction was transmitted through a parasite common to mosquitoes led to more advanced treatments for the condition and more effective means of preventing it.

Ross was born in Almora, Nepal, on May 13, 1857. He was the first of ten children to be born to General Sir Campbell Claye Grant Ross, a British officer stationed in India, and the former Matilde Charlotte Elderton. In 1865, at the age of eight, Ross was sent to England for his schooling. When he returned to his family in India, he declared to his father that he wanted to pursue...