Max Theiler Max Theiler Max Theiler (30 January 1899 – 11 August 1972) was a South African-American virologist and physician. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1951 for developing a vaccine against yellow fever in 1937, becoming the first African-born Nobel laureate. Born in Pretoria, Theiler was educated in South Africa through completion of his degree in medical school. He went to London for postgraduate work at St Thomas's Hospital Medical School, King's College London, and at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, earning a 1922 diploma in tropical medicine and hygiene. That year, he
Gertrud Theiler Africa, was named after Dr. Theiler in honor of the many years she dedicated to the collection. The argasid tick "Argas theilerae" (Hoogstraal and Kaiser, 1970), "Theiler's African white-backed vulture argasid," and the ixodid tick "Rhipicephalus gertrudae" (Feldman-Muhsam, 1960) were named to honor Dr Theiler for her many contributions to tick research. Theiler was the youngest daughter of Sir Arnold Theiler , founder and first director of the Veterinary Institute, Onderstepoort, and his wife, Emma Sophie Jegge; in 1971, she authored a biography of her father. She was a sister of virologist Max Theiler, who was awarded the 1951 Nobel