# List of microbiologists

Major contributions to the science of microbiology (as a discipline in its modern sense) have spanned the time from the mid-17th century month by month to the present day. The following is a list of notable microbiologists who have made significant contributions to the study of microorganisms. Many of those listed have received a Nobel Prize for their contributions to the field of microbiology. The others are typically considered historical figures whose work in microbiology had a notable impact in the field. Those microbiologists who currently work in the field have been excluded unless they have received recognition beyond that of being on the faculty in a college or university.

## Proto-microbiologists

* Mahavira
* Marcus Terentius Varro
* Avicenna
* Girolamo Fracastoro
* Marcello Malpighi
* Athanasius Kircher
* Jan Swammerdam
* Robert Hooke

## Microbiologists

| Birth - Death | Microbiologist | Nationality | Contribution summary |
| 1632–1723 | Antonie van Leeuwenhoek | Dutch | Considered to be the first acknowledged microscopist. Van Leeuwenhoek was the first to observe microscopic organisms, using simple single-lensed microscopes of his own design. |
| 1729–1799 | Lazzaro Spallanzani | Italian | Proved that bacteria did not arise due to spontaneous generation by developing a sealed, sterile broth medium. |
| 1749–1823 | Edward Jenner | English | Developed vaccination techniques against smallpox. |
| 1818–1865 | Ignaz Semmelweis | Hungarian | Demonstrated that doctors washing their hands with chlorine solution significantly reduced mortality of women giving birth in hospital setting. |
| 1853–1938 | Hans Christian Gram | Danish | Developed the Gram stain used to identify and classify bacteria. |
| 1845–1922 | Charles Lavaran | French | 1907 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for discovering the causative agents of malaria and trypanosomiasis. |
| 1827–1912 | Joseph Lister | English | Introduced sterilisation techniques to surgery. |
| 1822–1895 | Louis Pasteur | French | Seminal discoveries in vaccination, food safety, and microbial fermentation. A key proponent of the germ theory of disease. |
| 1850–1934 | Fanny Hesse | German | Developed agar for use in culturing bacteria. |
| 1851–1931 | Martinus Beijerinck | Netherlands | Discovered the first virus as well as bacterial nitrogen fixation and sulfate reduction. |
| 1885–1948 | Marjory Stephenson | British | Pioneer of bacterial metabolism. |
| 1871–1957 | Kiyoshi Shiga | Japanese | Discovered a bacterium causing an outbreak of dysentery. |
| 1856-1953 | Sergei Winogradsky | Ukrainian | Discovered the first known forms of chemoautotrophy, in particular lithotrophy and chemosynthesis. Invented the Winogradsky column technique for the study of sediment microbes. Pioneered the study of biogeochemical cycles, particularly the nitrogen cycle and the contribution of nitrifying bacteria. |
| 1854–1917 | Emil Adolf von Behring | German | 1901 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for discovering diphtheria antitoxin. |
| 1857–1932 | Sir Ronald Ross | British | 1902 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for discovering that malaria is transmitted by mosquitoes |
| 1843–1910 | Robert Koch | German | 1905 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for work on tuberculosis; identified causative agents of tuberculosis, cholera, and anthrax. |
| 1845–1922 | Charles Louis Alphonse Laveran | French | 1907 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for recognizing parasitic protozoa as the causes of malaria and African sleeping sickness. |
| 1857–1940 | Julius Wagner-Jauregg | Austrian | 1927 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for discovering the neurosyphilis could be treated by inducing fever with malaria parasites. |
| 1866–1936 | Charles Jules Henri Nicolle | French | 1928 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for determining that typhus is transmitted by body lice. |
| 1895–1964 | Gerhard Domagk | German | 1939 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for the discovering the first commercially available antibiotic: prontosil. |
| 1881–1955 | Sir Alexander Fleming | Scottish | 1945 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for discovering penicillin. |
| 1906–1979 | Sir Ernst Boris Chain | British | 1945 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for discovering penicillin. |
| 1898–1968 | Howard Walter Florey | Australian | 1945 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for discovering penicillin. |
| 1899–1972 | Max Theiler | South African | 1951 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for developing a vaccine against yellow fever. |
| 1888–1973 | Selman Abraham Waksman | American | 1952 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for identifying streptomycin and other antibiotics. |

## Living

* Ilan Chet (born 1939), Israeli microbiologist, professor, and President of the Weizmann Institute of Science
* Inna Sekirov, Moldovan-born, Canadian medical microbiologist and physician-scientist
* Pauline Johnson, immunologist
* Rita R. Colwell, American environmental microbiologist who studied the ecology of cholera, former director of the National Science Foundation and president of the American Society for Microbiology
* Wayne Nicholson, American biologist based on microbiology and cell biology
* William C. Campbell, 2015 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his part in the discovery of avermectin
* Yossef Av-Gay (born 1961), Israeli microbiologist and researcher