Rene Dubos and his wife, Marie Louise, at the
Ray Brook Sanatorium during her illness.
The Rockefeller Archive Center, in The Forgotten Plague: How the Battle Against Tuberculosis Was Won – and Lost, by Frank Ryan, M.D.
Born: February 20, 1901
Died: February 20, 1982
Married: Marie Louise Dubos; Jean Dubos
Rene Jules Dubos was a French-born American microbiologist, experimental pathologist, environmentalist, and humanist. He is credited for having made famous Jacques Ellul's environmental maxim, "Think globally, act locally."
His pioneering research in isolating antibacterial substances from certain soil microorganisms led to the discovery of major antibiotics. He performed groundbreaking research and wrote extensively on a number of subjects, including tuberculosis, pneumonia, and the mechanisms of acquired immunity, natural susceptibility, and resistance to infection.
He wrote twenty-two books, and was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in General Nonfiction in 1969 for his book So Human An Animal.
Mr. Dubos' first wife Marie Louise Dubos was a patient at Ray Brook Sanatorium, for three years. Every weekend, her husband traveled north to be with her. In the winter of 1942 she returned home. She died of tuberculosis in the New York Hospital on April 23, 1942.
External link:
Wikipedia: René Dubos
