Wendell Meredith Stanley was a biochemist who was the first to isolate, purify, and characterize the crystalline form of a virus. During World War II, he led a team of scientists in developing a vaccine for viral influenza. His efforts have paved the way for understanding the molecular basis of heredity and formed the foundation for the new scientific field of molecular biology. For his work in crystallizing the tobacco mosaic virus, Stanley shared the 1946 Nobel Prize in chemistry with John Howard Northrop and James B. Sumner.

Stanley was born in the small community of Ridgeville, Indiana, on August 16, 1904. His parents, James and Claire Plessinger Stanley, were publishers of a local newspaper. As a boy, Stanley helped the business by collecting news, setting type, and delivering papers. After graduating from high school he enrolled in Earlham College, a liberal arts school in Richmond, Indiana, where he majored in...