Oswald Avery (1877-1955)

Oswald Theodere Avery was born in Halfax Nova Scotia, Canada in 1877. The name of his parents where Joseph Francis Avery and Elizerbeth Crowdy, they where both British. His parents where immigrants who felt God was immpressing in their heart to go on a mission work in North America. The couple had all their three sons in Canada and Oswald happens to be the second. Before he turned 16, he lost both his Father and elder Brother to death.

Oswald Avery attended the following schools; New York Male Grammer School, he also attended Colgate Acedamy and Colgate University where he came out with a BA in humanities in the 1900. Later he would attend College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York, he received his medical degree in 1904. In 1907 Oswald Avery was appointed Associate Director of Bacteriology Department in Brooklyn, New York. Avery initially worked on the Bacteriology of yogurt but soon developed an interest in Tuberculosis, he went further to try to build his medical career on understanding the biological activities of pathogenic bacteria through a knowledge of their chemical composition. In 1913 he transfered to Rockeffer Institute where he worked for 35 years on a single specie of Pneumonia causing bacteria.

His career plumented when in colabration with Maclyn McCarty and Macleod, he published a seminar paper proofing that the hereditary material of any cell was the DNA. Their work was not widely accepted, it has a a lot of critism at that time, but in 1952 Hershey and chase proved DNA was carrying the hereditary material through thwir work with a bacteria virus (phage). The first attempt and introduction of this first scientific discovery placed Avery as a very important role player in the molecular revolution of biology.

He was given a number of posts in medical societies; he was one time the president of the American Association of Immunologist, the American Pathologist and Bacteriologist and finally the Society of American Bacteriologist. He received awards from different organization such as the Royal Society of London, the American College of Physicians and many others. In 1947 he was given the Lasker Awards in Basic Medical Research.
Avery retired early at the age of 65 due to Graves disease he had in the 1930's, it was while he was on one of His vacation that he was diagonsed of having liver cancer. This was precisly in the year 1954. He Later died on the 20th of Febuary 1955 at the age of 77 in Nashviller. He was never married and has no children.