Jonas Salk documentary, "Apart from the atomic bomb, America's greatest fear was polio." As a result, scientists were in a frantic race to find a way to prevent or cure the disease. In 1947, Salk accepted an appointment to the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. In 1948, he undertook a project funded by the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis, the organization that would fund the development of a vaccine, to determine the number of different types of polio virus. Salk saw an opportunity to extend this project towards developing a vaccine against polio, and, together with the skilled research team he
Salk Institute for Biological Studies Elizabeth Blackburn, Sydney Brenner, and Roger Guillemin. Three of Salk's 11 Nobel laureates are now deceased: Francis Crick, Robert W. Holley, and Renato Dulbecco. Another five scientists trained at Salk have gone on to win Nobel prizes. The institute is organized into several research units, each of which is further composed of several scientific groups, each led by a member of the faculty. Some of these units are: Elizabeth Blackburn is the President of the Salk Institute since 1 January 2016. Edward Callaway is the chair of the academic council. There are 56 faculty members. Six of these are members