28-29 May 2019, Institut Pasteur, Paris, France

A tribute to the life and career of renowned American microbiologist and professor of microbiology and immunology, Stanley Falkow (1934-2018).

Falkow has been called the father of microbial pathogenesis (the study of how infectious microbes and host cells interact to cause disease at the molecular level) and received numerous awards for his achievements in science, and was also President of the American Society for Microbiology 1997-98.
His interest in microbiology at an early age was motivated by reading Microbe Hunters, by microbiologist Paul de Kruif which he found at the local library. Another of Falkow’s heroes was Robert Koch, who established a set of guidelines in the 1880s (Koch’s postulates) to define when a microbe is responsible for an infection. Falkow extended this idea in the 1980s, developing the ‘molecular Koch’s postulates’ and was awarded the Koch Prize, recognizing outstanding and internationally recognized scientific achievement, in 2000.

He also received the Abbott Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Society for Microbiology; the Selman A. Waksman Award in Microbiology from the National Academy of Sciences and in 2008, was one of five scientists awarded the Lasker Award for medical research.

His scientific accomplishments sit alongside his enthusiasm for teaching, supervising and mentoring students and these twin passions will ensure his academic legacy for decades to come.