Selman Waksman — bio (nobel/antibio) with roots in the Russian Empire
Selman Waksman was a Ukrainian-born American biochemist who won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1952 for discovering streptomycin — the first antibiotic effective against tuberculosis, which was killing millions worldwide. He coined the word 'antibiotic' and his work transformed medicine.
Tracing the roots — Nova Pryluka (Ukr)
Born in Nova Pryluka (Russian Empire, now Ukraine) in 1888 to Jacob Waksman and Fradia London — a Jewish family in the Pale of Settlement — Waksman emigrated to the United States in 1910 and built his scientific career at Rutgers University. His discovery of streptomycin directly from soil bacteria in New Jersey was one of medicine's greatest gifts to humanity.
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Nova Pryluka (Ukr). At the time, this region lay within the Russian Empire, which spanned from Poland to the Pacific.