John Franklin Enders

Biography

John Franklin Enders (February 10, 1897 – September 8, 1985) was an American biomedical scientist and Nobel Laureate . Enders has been called "The Father of Modern Vaccines." [ 1 ] [ 2 ] Enders was born in West Hartford, Connecticut on February 10, 1897. [ 3 ] His father, John Ostrom Enders, was CEO of the Hartford National Bank and left him a fortune of $19 million upon his death. [ 1 ] He attended the Noah Webster School in Hartford , [ 4 ] and graduated from St. Paul's School in Concord, New Hampshire in 1915. [ 5 ] [ 3 ] [ 6 ] After attending Yale University a short time, he joined the United States Army Air Corps in 1918 as a flight instructor and a lieutenant. After returning from World War I , he graduated from Yale , where he was a member of Scroll and Key as well as Delta Kappa Epsilon . He went into real estate in 1922, and tried several careers before choosing the biomedical field with a focus on infectious diseases, gaining a PhD at Harvard in 1930. He later joined the faculty at Children's Hospital Boston . [ 3 ] Education: St. Paul's School

About the Lasker Award

The Lasker Awards have been awarded annually since 1946 to living persons who have made major contributions to medical science or who have performed public service on behalf of medicine. They are administered by the Lasker Foundation, founded by advertising pioneer Albert Lasker and his wife Mary Woodard Lasker (a medical research activist). The awards are sometimes referred to as "America's Nobels."

Quick Facts

• Award: Lasker Award - Basic Medical Research
• Added: 2026-02-07
• Source: Wikipedia
• Established: 1946
• Presented by: Lasker Foundation

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