Dubos, René Jules, << doo BAWS or doo BOH, reh NAY zhool >> (1901-1982), a French-American microbiologist, pioneered in the development of antibiotics, a type of drug used to treat infections. In 1939, Dubos developed tyrothricin, the first commercially produced antibiotic, from a substance made by soil bacteria. His work led other researchers to develop the antibiotics penicillin and streptomycin.
Dubos became an advocate of the science of ecology. His investigations on tuberculosis in the 1940’s led him to think and write broadly about human relationships to both the natural and social environments. He shared the 1969 Pulitzer Prize for general nonfiction for So Human an Animal (1968).
Dubos was born on Feb. 20, 1901, in Saint-Brice, France, near Paris. In 1927, he earned a Ph.D. degree from Rutgers University and joined the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research (now Rockefeller University). He became a United States citizen in 1938. He died on Feb. 20, 1982.
