Waksman (left) discusses his experiments with Fleming, 1951. Selman Abraham Waksman (July 22, 1888 - August 16, 1973) was a Ukrainian-American biochemist and microbiologist whose research into organic substances and their decomposition promoted the discovery of Streptomycin, and over twenty other antibiotics (a word he coined) and introduced procedures that have led to the development of many others. In 1952 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in recognition for his discovery of streptomycin, the first antibiotic active against tuberculosis. He was author or co-author of over 400 scientific papers, 28 books and 14 scientific pamphlets. He died in 1973 at the age of 85. Alexander Fleming (August 6, 1881 - March 11, 1955) was a Scottish biologist and pharmacologist. He wrote many articles on bacteriology, immunology, and chemotherapy. His best-known discoveries are the discovery of the enzyme lysozyme in 1923 and the antibiotic substance penicillin from the mold Penicillium notatum in 1928, for which he shared the Nobel Prize in 1945 with Howard Florey and Ernst Boris Chain. His accidental discovery and isolation of penicillin marked the start of modern antibiotics. He died in 1955 from a heart attack at the age of 73.