Jonas Salk

Jonas E. Salk (Science Photo LIbrary (Science Photo Library))

My hero is a person who spent a large portion of his life to save numerous people in need. In 1955, he developed a vaccine for the crippling disease polio. Fortunately, because his parents took extreme care of him, he never got polio. My hero is Jonas Salk. He is my hero because he worked so hard to just benefit others. Jonas Salk is a very intelligent, hard working, and courageous man. He died in 1995, from heart failure, at an age of 80 years old.

Jonas Salk is extremely well known for his amazing intelligence. In 1947, Jonas was the first member of his family that went to college, when he accepted an appointment to the University of Pittsburgh Medical School. There, he started work on his polio vaccine. He knew that if the body was artificially exposed to a harmless or killed form of the polio virus, the body produces antibodies, so when the real virus comes, the antibodies destroy it. Jonas also wrote many books, such as World Population and Human Values, Man Unfolding, and a New Reality.

           Back in Salk's time, curing a disease like polio would not be easy. That's why Jonas Salk worked hard for eight long years for a cure, and never gave up. He was dedicated to the job. In 1963, long after polio was abolished, Jonas founded the Jonas Salk Institute of Biological Studies, a center for medical and scientific research. He spent most of his life doing research just to help others.

 Probably the most important reason as to why Jonas Salk is my hero is because out of anybody I know, he is by far the most courageous. He showed the people that with just a little work something humans can solve a difficult problem and he, just with a little research, abolished polio, the bane of millions of people. He said that others could do the same in the future. Salk always put others before himself, for example he wrote books to benefit the knowledge of others, and researched for a cure that he never needed. If he simply didn't care, to this day millions of people would've been killed by polio.

Jonas Salk has given us a very significant addition to science. Him, just one person, was able to save many lives all because he spent a large portion of his life devoted to research. Without him, we would still be struggling over polio, and we wouldn't have most of the knowledge he had. He worked hard to cure polio, and was devoted to save lives. Jonas Salk is my hero, and he inspires me to work hard for others.