Joseph Edward Smadel

Joseph Edward Smadel (1907 - 1963) was a U.S. physician and virologist. He introduced chloramphenicol as treatment for rickettsial diseases. In 1962, he became the first recipient of the Albert Lasker Award for Clinical Medical Research . Smadel was born in Vincennes, Indiana, the son of physician Joseph William Smadel and former nurse Clara Greene Smadel. He completed his undergraduate work at the University of Pennsylvania then obtained a medic... more

Joseph Edward Smadel (1907 - 1963) was a U.S. physician and virologist. He introduced chloramphenicol as treatment for rickettsial diseases. In 1962, he became the first recipient of the Albert Lasker Award for Clinical Medical Research . Smadel was born in Vincennes, Indiana, the son of physician Joseph William Smadel and former nurse Clara Greene Smadel. He completed his undergraduate work at the University of Pennsylvania then obtained a medical degree from the Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis in 1931. It was at WU that he met his future wife, Elizabeth Moore. In Smadel was a member of the virological team that first recognized an outbreak of St. Louis encephalitis in 1933. Smadel then moved on to New York City to work under scientists Homer Swift and Thomas M. Rivers at the Rockefeller Institute. While there, Smadel took a strong interest in the new field of virology. He formed a productive, long term professional association with Dr. Rivers, the two of them... less