Robert Koch
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{{Infobox Scientist
|name = Robert Koch {{click|image=Nobel medal dsc06171.jpg|link=Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine|width=20px|height=20px}}
|box_width =
|image = RobertKoch cropped.jpg
|image_width =
|caption = Robert Koch
|birth_date = {{birth date|1843|12|11|mf=y}}
|birth_place = [[Clausthal]], [[Kingdom of Hanover]]
|death_date = {{death date and age|1910|5|27|1843|12|11|mf=y}}
|death_place = [[Baden-Baden]], [[Grand Duchy of Baden]]
|residence =
|citizenship =
|nationality =
|ethnicity =
|field = [[Microbiology]]
|work_institutions = Imperial Health Office, Berlin, [[University of Berlin]]
|alma_mater = [[University of Göttingen]]
|doctoral_advisor = [[Friedrich Gustav Jakob Henle]]
|doctoral_students =
|known_for = Co-founder of [[bacteriology]],<br />[[Koch's postulates]] of [[germ theory]],<br />Isolator of [[anthrax]], [[tuberculosis]] and [[cholera]]
|author_abbrev_bot =
|author_abbrev_zoo =
|prizes = [[Nobel Prize in Medicine]], 1905
|religion =
|footnotes =
}}
{{dablink|For the American lobbyist, see [[Bobby Koch]].}}
'''Heinrich Hermann Robert Koch''' ([[December 11]] [[1843]] – [[May 27]] [[1910]]) was a [[Germany|German]] [[physician]]. He became famous for isolating ''[[Bacillus anthracis]]'' ([[1877]]), the [[Mycobacterium tuberculosis|tuberculosis bacillus]] ([[1882]]) and the [[Vibrio cholerae| vibrio cholera]] ([[1883]]) and for his development of [[Koch's postulates]].
He was awarded the [[Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine]] for his tuberculosis findings in [[1905]]. He is considered one of the founders of [[microbiology]] - he inspired such major figures as [[Paul Ehrlich]] and [[Gerhard Domagk]].
==Biography==
Robert Koch was born in [[Clausthal-Zellerfeld|Clausthal]], [[Germany]] as the son of a mining official. He studied medicine under [[Friedrich Gustav Jakob Henle]] at the [[University of Göttingen]] and graduated in 1866. He then served in the [[Franco-Prussian War]] and later became district medical officer in [[Wolsztyn|Wollstein (Wolsztyn)]], [[Prussian Poland]]. Working with very limited resources, he became one of the founders of [[bacteriology]], the other major figure being [[Louis Pasteur]].
After [[Casimir Davaine]] showed the direct transmission of the [[Anthrax disease|anthrax]] bacillus between cows, Koch studied anthrax more closely. He invented methods to purify the bacillus from blood samples and grow pure cultures. He found that, while it could not survive outside a host for long, anthrax built persisting endospores that could last a long time.
These [[endospore]]s, embedded in soil, were the cause of unexplained "spontaneous" outbreaks of anthrax. Koch published his findings in 1876, and was rewarded with a job at the Imperial Health Office in [[Berlin]] in 1880. In 1881, he urged the [[Sterilization (microbiology)|sterilization]] of surgical instruments using heat.
In [[Berlin]], he improved the methods he used in Wollstein, including staining and purification techniques, and bacterial growth media, including [[agar plates]] (thanks to the advice of Angelina and [[Walter Hesse|Walther Hesse]]) and the [[Petri dish]], named after its inventor, his assistant [[Julius Richard Petri]]. These devices are still used today. With these techniques, he was able to discover the bacterium causing [[tuberculosis]] (''[[Mycobacterium tuberculosis]]'') in [[1882]] (he announced the discovery on [[March 24]]). Tuberculosis was the cause of one in seven deaths in the mid-19th century.
In 1883, Koch worked with a French research team in [[Alexandria]], [[Egypt]], studying [[cholera]]. Koch identified the [[vibrio]] bacterium that caused cholera, though he never managed to prove it in experiments. The bacterium had been previously isolated by Italian anatomist [[Filippo Pacini]] in 1854, but his work had been ignored due to the predominance of the [[miasma theory of disease]]. Koch was unaware of Pacini's work and made an independent discovery, and his greater preeminence allowed the discovery to be widely spread for the benefit of others. In 1965, however, the bacterium was formally renamed ''Vibrio cholera Pacini 1854''.
In 1885, he became professor of [[hygiene]] at the [[Charité|University of Berlin]], and later, in 1891, director of the newly formed Institute of Infectious Diseases, a position which he resigned from in 1904. He started traveling around the world, studying diseases in [[South Africa]], [[India]], and [[Java (island)|Java]].
Probably as important as his work on tuberculosis, for which he was awarded a Nobel Prize (1905), are ''[[Koch's postulates]]'', which say that ''to establish that an organism is the cause of a [[disease]], it must be'':
* found in all cases of the disease examined
* prepared and maintained in a [[pure culture]]
* capable of producing the original [[infection]], even after several generations in culture
* retrievable from an innoculated [[animal]] and cultured again.
After Koch's success the quality of his own research declined (especially with the [[fiasco]] over his ineffective TB cure "[[tuberculin]]"), although his pupils found the organisms responsible for [[diphtheria]], [[typhoid]], [[pneumonia]], [[gonorrhoea]], cerebrospinal [[meningitis]], [[leprosy]], [[bubonic plague]], [[tetanus]], and [[syphilis]], among others, by using his methods.
He died on [[27 May]] [[1910]] of a [[Myocardial infarction|heart-attack]] in [[Baden-Baden]], aged 66.<ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.rki.de/cln_011/nn_231522/EN/Content/Institute/History/Robert__Koch.html__nnn=true|title= Robert Koch and the Institute|accessdate=2008-05-24|date= 2004-11-30|publisher= Robert Koch Institute}}</ref>
==Honors==
[[Koch (crater)|Koch crater]] on the [[Moon]] was named after him. The [[Robert Koch Prize]] and Medal were created to honour Microbiologists who make groundbreaking discoveries or who contribute to global health in a unique way. The now-defunct Robert Koch Hospital at [[Koch, Missouri]] (south of [[St. Louis, Missouri]]), was also named in his honor.
==In Popular Culture==
A hagiographic account of Koch's career can be found in the 1939 Nazi propaganda film ''Robert Koch, der Bekämpfer des Todes'', directed by [[Hans Steinhoff]] and starring [[Emil Jannings]] as Koch.
==References==
{{reflist}}
==Consult==
* {{cite book|last= Brock|first= Thomas D|title= Robert Koch: A Life in Medicine and Bacteriology|publisher= ASM Press|location= [[Washington, D.C.]]|year= 1999|isbn= 9781555811433|oclc= 39951653}}
* {{cite book|last= Morris|first= Robert D|title= The blue death: disease, disaster and the water we drink|publisher= [[Harper Collins]]|location= [[New York City|New York]]|year= 2007|isbn= 9780060730895|oclc= 71266565}}
==See also==
* [[History of medicine]]
* [[Microbiology]]
* [[Timeline of medicine and medical technology]]
==External links==
* [http://nobelprize.org/medicine/laureates/1905/koch-bio.html Biography at the Nobel Foundation website]
* [http://vlp.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/people/data?id=per99 Biography and bibliography] in the Virtual Laboratory of the [[Max Planck Institute for the History of Science]]
{{Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine Laureates 1901-1925}}
<!-- Metadata: see [[Wikipedia:Persondata]] -->
{{Persondata
|NAME= Koch, Robert
|ALTERNATIVE NAMES=
|SHORT DESCRIPTION=[[Germany|German]] [[physician]] and [[bacteriology|bacteriologist]]
|DATE OF BIRTH={{birth date|1843|12|11}}
|PLACE OF BIRTH=[[Clausthal]], [[Germany]]
|DATE OF DEATH=1910-05-27
|PLACE OF DEATH=[[Baden-Baden]], [[Germany]]
}}
{{BD|1843|1910|Koch, Robert}}
[[Category:German biologists]]
[[Category:German physicians]]
[[Category:German inventors]]
[[Category:German microbiologists]]
[[Category:Tuberculosis]]
[[Category:Nobel laureates in Physiology or Medicine]]
[[Category:German Nobel laureates]]
[[Category:German military personnel of the Franco-Prussian War]]
[[Category:University of Göttingen alumni]]
[[Category:Humboldt University of Berlin faculty]]
[[Category:People from the Kingdom of Hanover]]
[[Category:Recipients of the Pour le Mérite (civil class)]]
[[Category:Deaths by myocardial infarction]]
[[Category:Members of the Prussian Academy of Sciences]]
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