Medicine: 1907

Laveran, Charles Louis Alphonse pronounced lah VRAHN, (1845-1922), a French physician, discovered the parasite that causes malaria. He also made other contributions to the knowledge of tropical diseases. He received the 1907 Nobel Prize in medicine.

In Algeria, in 1880, Laveran recognized the malaria parasite in the blood of soldiers who were suffering from the disease. As early as 1884, he became convinced that mosquitoes played an important part in spreading the disease. In 1892, Laveran described several species of trypanosomes, the parasites that cause sleeping sickness.

Laveran was born on June 18, 1845, in Paris. He completed his medical studies in Strasbourg in 1867. He served as a military physician until 1896. The next year, he joined the Pasteur Institute in Paris. He died on May 18, 1922.

Contributor: Matthew Ramsey, Ph.D., Associate Professor of History, Vanderbilt University.