Ross, Sir Ronald (1857-1932), a British physician, won the 1902 Nobel Prize for physiology or medicine for work that led to the discovery of how to combat malaria. In 1894, Ross began research to prove Scottish physician Sir Patrick Manson’s theory that malaria was transmitted by mosquitoes. After searching for two years, Ross found the malaria parasite in the stomach of a mosquito that had bitten a malarial patient. In 1898, he succeeded in transmitting bird malaria by mosquito bites. In 1900, scientists used human volunteers and confirmed Ross’s belief that the Anopheles mosquito carried human malaria.
Ross was born in Almora, India. He studied medicine in England but did most of his research in India. He died on Sept. 16, 1932.
