Famous Inventors Born in July!

Robert Hooke

Date of Birth: July 18, 1635 

Mr. Hooke was an English polymath who was active as a physicist (“natural philosopher”), astronomer, geologist, meteorologist and architect. He is credited as one of the first scientists to investigate living things at a microscopic scale in 1665, using a compound microscope that he designed. Hooke was an impoverished scientific inquirer in young adulthood who went on to become one of the most important scientists of his time.

Micrographia (1665): Detailed microscopic observations and illustrations, introducing the term “cell.”
Hooke’s Law (1660): The principle of elasticity stating that the force needed to extend or compress a spring is proportional to the distance.
Gravitational Theory Contributions: Influenced Newton’s development of the universal law of gravitation.

Selman Waksman

Date of Birth: July 22, 1888

Waksman was a Jewish Ukrainian inventor, Nobel Prize laureate, biochemist and microbiologist.

Discovery of Streptomycin:

• Waksman’s most famous achievement is the discovery of streptomycin in 1943, which was the first antibiotic effective against tuberculosis. This groundbreaking work earned him the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1952​
• Waksman is credited with coining the term “antibiotics” to describe antibacterial substances derived from living organisms. His work helped establish the systematic search for antibiotics in soil microbes​
• Waksman and his team discovered several other antibiotics, including actinomycin, neomycin, and candicidin. Neomycin, in particular, has found widespread use in treating bacterial infections​