Hideyo Noguchi
Hideyo Noguchi was a prominent Japanese bacteriologist who discovered the agent of syphilis in 1911. Noguchi's work would later attract the scrutiny of the committee evaluating nominations for the Nobel Prize in Medicine. The Nobel Foundation archives have been only recently opened for public inspection; and what was once only speculation is now confirmed. In 1914, for example, Dr. Ikutaro Hirai of Kyoto nominated Noguchi for the Nobel Prize in Medicine because of his bacteriological and biological works.