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Daniel Carleton Gajdusek was an American medical researcher who won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for discovering that certain diseases could be transmitted between people through infectious proteins called prions. His work fundamentally changed how scientists understand disease transmission and opened new areas of medical research that remain important today.
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Daniel Carleton Gajdusek (/ˈɡaɪdəʃɛk/ GHY-də-shek; September 9, 1923 – December 12, 2008) was an American physician and medical researcher who was the co-recipient (with Baruch S. Blumberg) of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1976 for work on the transmissibility of kuru, implying the existence of an infectious agent, which he named an 'unconventional virus'. In 1996, Gajdusek was charged with child molestation and, after being convicted, spent 12 months in prison before entering a self-imposed exile in Europe, where he died a decade later. Despite Gajdusek openly admitting to molesting boys and his approval of incest, he still received support from peers advocating for clemency who felt his crimes were lessened by his scientific contributions.
His papers are held at the National Library of Medicine in Bethesda, Maryland and at the American Philosophical Society in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
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1923 births2008 deathsAmerican expatriates in FranceAmerican expatriates in NorwayAmerican expatriates in the NetherlandsAmerican Nobel laureatesAmerican people convicted of child sexual abuseAmerican people of Hungarian descentAmerican people of Slovak descentColumbia University facultyFellows of the Australian Academy of ScienceHarvard Medical School alumni