Medical discoveries

This selection brings together events, individual lives, and awards related to medicine. Those types can be separated in the atlas: a biography or prize is not equivalent to a medical discovery.

Canonical records
400
Events
155
People
236
Processes and periods
9
Compare in the atlasSelection criteria and limits

Topics represented

Medicine (270) · Nobel laureates (233) · People (233) · Physiology or Medicine (116) · Nobel Prizes (116) · Science (43) · Epidemics & public health (7) · Personas científicas (6) · Roman Empire (3) · Vacunación (3) · VIH/sida (3) · Antirretrovirales (2)

View distribution by region and period
Canonical records by regional label and start date. These are numerical analysis bins, not universal historical periods. A multi-region record appears in multiple rows; do not add rows as a unique-record total.
RegionBefore 3000 BCE3000–1 BCE1–14991500–17991800–18991900–1999Since 2000
Africa0030230
Americas0000261152
Asia00402120
Europe01345817028
Oceania0000260
Global / no specific region01102131

Records and sources

Ordered by start date. Long lives and processes may begin before the period you want to study.

  1. 1925–1998

    Martin Rodbell

    Martin Rodbell (1925–1998) appears in the official census of individual laureates for Physiology or Medicine (1994). This record represents the person’s life; each award is dated separately, and the prize year does not stand for the date of their whole body of work.

  2. 1925–2019

    Paul Greengard

    Paul Greengard (1925–2019) appears in the official census of individual laureates for Physiology or Medicine (2000). This record represents the person’s life; each award is dated separately, and the prize year does not stand for the date of their whole body of work.

  3. 1925–2017

    Oliver Smithies

    Oliver Smithies (1925–2017) appears in the official census of individual laureates for Physiology or Medicine (2007). This record represents the person’s life; each award is dated separately, and the prize year does not stand for the date of their whole body of work.

  4. 1925–2013

    Robert G. Edwards

    Robert G. Edwards (1925–2013) appears in the official census of individual laureates for Physiology or Medicine (2010). This record represents the person’s life; each award is dated separately, and the prize year does not stand for the date of their whole body of work.

  5. 1926

    Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1926

    The 1926 award linked this prize to Johannes Fibiger. This event records institutional recognition; it does not date the discovery, work, or action being recognized.

  6. 1926–2024

    Andrew V. Schally

    Andrew V. Schally (1926–2024) appears in the official census of individual laureates for Physiology or Medicine (1977). This record represents the person’s life; each award is dated separately, and the prize year does not stand for the date of their whole body of work.

  7. 1926–2013

    David H. Hubel

    David H. Hubel (1926–2013) appears in the official census of individual laureates for Physiology or Medicine (1981). This record represents the person’s life; each award is dated separately, and the prize year does not stand for the date of their whole body of work.

  8. 1927

    Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1927

    The 1927 award linked this prize to Julius Wagner-Jauregg. This event records institutional recognition; it does not date the discovery, work, or action being recognized.

  9. 1927–2010

    Marshall W. Nirenberg

    Marshall W. Nirenberg (1927–2010) appears in the official census of individual laureates for Physiology or Medicine (1968). This record represents the person’s life; each award is dated separately, and the prize year does not stand for the date of their whole body of work.

  10. 1927–2004

    John R. Vane

    John R. Vane (1927–2004) appears in the official census of individual laureates for Physiology or Medicine (1982). This record represents the person’s life; each award is dated separately, and the prize year does not stand for the date of their whole body of work.

  11. 1927–2002

    César Milstein

    César Milstein (1927–2002) appears in the official census of individual laureates for Physiology or Medicine (1984). This record represents the person’s life; each award is dated separately, and the prize year does not stand for the date of their whole body of work.

  12. 1927–2019

    Sydney Brenner

    Sydney Brenner (1927–2019) appears in the official census of individual laureates for Physiology or Medicine (2002). This record represents the person’s life; each award is dated separately, and the prize year does not stand for the date of their whole body of work.

  13. 1928–1945

    From penicillin observation to therapeutic production

    Fleming observed a mould’s antibacterial effect in 1928; other teams developed its isolation, clinical testing, and large-scale production during the 1940s. Penicillin transformed treatment for certain bacterial infections, not viral diseases, and its deployment also opened issues of access, appropriate use, and antimicrobial resistance.

  14. 1928

    Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1928

    The 1928 award linked this prize to Charles Nicolle. This event records institutional recognition; it does not date the discovery, work, or action being recognized.

  15. 1928

    Penicillin

    Alexander Fleming observes penicillin’s antibacterial action; its later development begins the antibiotic era.

  16. 1928–2025

    James Watson

    James Watson (1928–2025) appears in the official census of individual laureates for Physiology or Medicine (1962). This record represents the person’s life; each award is dated separately, and the prize year does not stand for the date of their whole body of work.

  17. 1928–1999

    Daniel Nathans

    Daniel Nathans (1928–1999) appears in the official census of individual laureates for Physiology or Medicine (1978). This record represents the person’s life; each award is dated separately, and the prize year does not stand for the date of their whole body of work.

  18. 1929

    Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1929

    The 1929 award linked this prize to Christiaan Eijkman and Sir Frederick Hopkins. This event records institutional recognition; it does not date the discovery, work, or action being recognized.

  19. 1929–2014

    Gerald M. Edelman

    Gerald M. Edelman (1929–2014) appears in the official census of individual laureates for Physiology or Medicine (1972). This record represents the person’s life; each award is dated separately, and the prize year does not stand for the date of their whole body of work.

  20. 1929–… (as of 2026-09-01)

    Werner Arber

    Werner Arber (1929–present) appears in the official census of individual laureates for Physiology or Medicine (1978). This record represents the person’s life; each award is dated separately, and the prize year does not stand for the date of their whole body of work.

  21. 1929–… (as of 2026-09-01)

    Eric Kandel

    Eric Kandel (1929–present) appears in the official census of individual laureates for Physiology or Medicine (2000). This record represents the person’s life; each award is dated separately, and the prize year does not stand for the date of their whole body of work.

  22. 1929–2007

    Paul C. Lauterbur

    Paul C. Lauterbur (1929–2007) appears in the official census of individual laureates for Physiology or Medicine (2003). This record represents the person’s life; each award is dated separately, and the prize year does not stand for the date of their whole body of work.

  23. 1930

    Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1930

    The 1930 award linked this prize to Karl Landsteiner. This event records institutional recognition; it does not date the discovery, work, or action being recognized.

  24. 1930–… (as of 2026-09-01)

    William C. Campbell

    William C. Campbell (1930–present) appears in the official census of individual laureates for Physiology or Medicine (2015). This record represents the person’s life; each award is dated separately, and the prize year does not stand for the date of their whole body of work.

  25. 1930–… (as of 2026-09-01)

    Tu Youyou

    A Chinese pharmacologist, born in 1930, recognized for discoveries that led to artemisinin-based malaria therapies. As a living person according to the source, her life interval is left open and the work is presented as collective research.

  26. 1931

    Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1931

    The 1931 award linked this prize to Otto Warburg. This event records institutional recognition; it does not date the discovery, work, or action being recognized.

  27. 1931–2025

    Hamilton O. Smith

    Hamilton O. Smith (1931–2025) appears in the official census of individual laureates for Physiology or Medicine (1978). This record represents the person’s life; each award is dated separately, and the prize year does not stand for the date of their whole body of work.

  28. 1932

    Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1932

    The 1932 award linked this prize to Sir Charles Sherrington and Edgar Adrian. This event records institutional recognition; it does not date the discovery, work, or action being recognized.

  29. 1932–2022

    Luc Montagnier

    Luc Montagnier (1932–2022) appears in the official census of individual laureates for Physiology or Medicine (2008). This record represents the person’s life; each award is dated separately, and the prize year does not stand for the date of their whole body of work.

  30. 1933

    Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1933

    The 1933 award linked this prize to Thomas H. Morgan. This event records institutional recognition; it does not date the discovery, work, or action being recognized.