In the history of medicine, Hilary Koprowski is one of the names that keeps returning.
The record lists Hilary Koprowski as Polish physician, virologist, immunologist and medical researcher (1916–2013).
Hilary Koprowski was born at Warsaw in 1916. His recorded nationality is Poland. He trained at Wydział Lekarski Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego and Chopin University of Music.
Antibiotics, imaging and the randomised trial defined twentieth-century medicine; evidence replaced authority as the standard.
His posts were held at Thomas Jefferson University.
The recorded fields of work are immunology.
The test of medical work is whether practice changed, not whether the argument was elegant.
Recognition followed: Legion of Honour, Order of the Smile, Officer of the Order of Polonia Restituta (1994) and Commander with Star of the Order of Polonia Restituta (1998).
That the work was done from Poland matters: hospitals, training and research funding are unevenly distributed, and they decide which questions can be asked.
Hilary Koprowski died in 2013, aged 97. What survives is the change in practice, which is how a medical life is actually measured.
Achievements
- Legion of Honour
- Order of the Smile
- Officer of the Order of Polonia Restituta — 1994
- Commander with Star of the Order of Polonia Restituta — 1998
- Grand Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta — 2007
- Held posts at Thomas Jefferson University
- Fields: immunology
