Selman Abraham Waksman was born of Jewish descent in Novaya Priluka in the Ukraine. He immigrated to New Jersey, America at 22 years of age.

In 1915, he graduated at Rutgers University with a degree in Agriculture, later expanding the curriculum, embracing the study of bacteria, actinomycetes, protozoa, and fungi. In 1918, he received his Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the University of California.

Waksman expanded the scientific field of soil microbiology publishing over 28 books, including "Principles of Soil Microbiology" (1927), "The Soil and the Microbe" (1931) and "Humus" (1936).

He travelled widely in the 1920's and 1930's and carried out systematic studies of composts throughout the United States, Europe, and the Middle East.

In 1952, Waksman obtained the Nobel Prize for medicine and is respected for his contribution to the science of microbiology.

"An antibiotic is a chemical substance produced by a microbe which has the capacity to inhibit the growth of and even to destroy other microbes."

Waksman Foundation