Scientists

• 1665: Robert Hooke published the first description of a microbe
• 1667: Anton Van Leeuwenhoek observed "little animals"
• 1796: Edward Jenner provided the first scientific validation of smallpox vaccination
• 1850: Ignaz Semmelweis advocated handwashing in the prevention of the spread of disease
• 1861: Louis Pasteur disproved spontaneous generation
• 1862: Louis Pasteur published a paper supporting the germ theory of disease
• 1867: Joseph Lister practiced Antiseptic Surgery
• 1876: Robert Koch discovered Bacillus anthracis, the first proof of the germ theory
• 1881: Robert Koch utilized solid culture media for bacterial growth
• 1882: Paul Erlich developed the Acid-fast stain
• 1882: Robert Koch outlined Koch's Postulate
• 1884: Hans Christian Gram developed the Gram Stain
• 1884: Chamberland discovered the autoclave
• 1885: Louis Pasteur administered the first Rabies Vaccination
• 1887: Richard J. Petri invented the Petri Dish
• 1890: Friedrich Loeffler discovered or demonstrated the presence of bacterial flagella (motile, non-motile)
• 1892: Dmitri Iosifovich Ivanovski discovered Viruses
• 1893: T. Smith and F.I. Killbourne first described Zoonosis
• 1898: Baijerinck developed the enrichment medium
• 1899: Martinus Beijerinck recognized viral dependence on living host cells for reproduction
• 1900: Walter Reed proved that mosquitoes carry the agent of yellow fever
• 1910: Paul Erlich discovered the cure for syphilis
• 1928: Alexander Fleming discovered Penicillin
• 1953: J. Watson and F. Crick proposed and built the DNA Model
• 1977: W. Gilbert and F. Sanger developed the DNA sequencing method
• 1983: Kary Mulis invented the Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR)
• 1995: The Institute for Genomic Research (TIGR) published the first microbial genomic sequence