Daniel Carleton Gajdusek

Who is this?

Daniel Carleton Gajdusek ( GHY-də-shek; September 9, 1923 – December 12, 2008) was an American physician and medical researcher who was the co-recipient (with Baruch S. Blumberg) of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1976 for work on the transmissibility of kuru, implying the existence of an infectious agent, which he named an 'unconventional virus'. In 1996, Gajdusek was charged with child molestation and, after being convicted, spent 12 months in prison before entering a self-imposed exile in Europe, where he died a decade later. Despite Gajdusek openly admitting to molesting boys and his approval of incest, he still received support from peers advocating for clemency who felt his crimes were lessened by his scientific contributions. His papers are held at the National Library of Medicine in Bethesda, Maryland and at the American Philosophical Society in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Career

1. 1923
   Born
2. 1963
   Won E. Mead Johnson Award
3. 1976
   Won Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
4. 1992
   Won Bengt Winblad Lifetime Achievement Award in Alzheimer’s Disease Research
5. 1993
   Won Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science
6. 1996
   Won honorary doctorate of the University of Las Palmas, Gran Canaria
7. 2008
   Passed away
8. Member of German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina
9. Member of National Academy of Sciences
10. Member of Australian Academy of Science

Trivia

• •Place of birth: Yonkers
• •Citizenship: United States
• •Known as: physician, virologist, biologist, anthropologist