page_title: Preben von Magnus
section_title: Career
hierarchical_section_title: Preben von Magnus / Career
caption_attribution_description: English: Electron micrograph of monkeypox virus.
context_page_description: Preben Christian Alexander von Magnus was a Danish virologist who is known for his research on influenza, polio vaccination and monkeypox. He gave his name to the Von Magnus phenomenon.
  In the 1950s, together with his wife the virologist Herdis von Magnus, he directed the first Danish vaccination programme against polio. In 1958, he was the first to confirm the identity of the monkeypox virus and to describe monkeypox in laboratory crab-eating Macaques during two outbreaks of the disease in the summer and autumn of that year. In 1959 he was appointed director of the Statens Serum Institut.
  He represented Denmark at the 1959 Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs where he explained that respiratory viruses such as influenza and the common cold were unsuitable as biological weapons. He became a Knight of the Order of the Dannebrog in 1965.
context_section_description: Following his junior hospital posts in 1943, he worked at the Statens Serum Institut, and in 1944 published, with his wife Herdis von Magnus, the initial study that led to the discovery of what today is known as the Von Magnus phenomenon.
  Von Magnus became Doctor of Medical Science in 1952, after defending his doctoral dissertation Propagation of the PR8 strain of influenza A virus in chick embryos. He was director of the Danish Influenza Centre and in 1959 was appointed director of the Statens Serum Institut. In 1951, he was a member of the UNRRA aid to South Korean civilians. He served on the Danish hospital ship MS Jutlandia and he became a member of the Advisory Panel on Virus Disease of the World Health Organization. In addition, in 1960, he became an advisor to the Danish National Health Service on bacteriology and serology. In 1965, he was appointed to the Danish Science Advisory Council, where he served as its vice-chairman and chairman. Three years later he became a member and co-founder of the Danish Royal Scientific Society.
caption: Monkeypox