Howard Florey

Hello! My name is Howard Florey. I was born on September 24th, 1898, in a sunny place called Australia. Ever since I was a little boy, I was very curious. I loved looking at tiny things through microscopes and learning how our bodies work. I decided that when I grew up, I wanted to be a scientist to help people who were sick feel all better.

I moved to England and became a scientist at a big school called the University of Oxford. I was not alone! I worked with my good friend, Ernst Chain. We heard about a special, fuzzy green mold that another scientist, Alexander Fleming, had found in 1928. We thought, 'What if this mold could fight off the naughty germs that make people sick?' Around 1940, my team and I worked very hard in our lab. We grew lots of the mold, and we figured out how to get the good stuff out of it to make a medicine.

We called our new medicine penicillin. And guess what? It worked! It was like a superhero medicine that could help people get well from very bad sicknesses and owies. Our medicine helped so many people, especially soldiers who were hurt. It made me so happy to know that our hard work was helping families all over the world.

I lived to be 69 years old. I am remembered as one of the people who turned penicillin into a medicine that doctors still use today. It feels wonderful to know that our discovery continues to help people stay healthy and strong.