Harold Boyd Woodruff (July 22, 1917 – January 19, 2017) was an American soil microbiologist and a member of the

National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the ...

. He is known for the discovery of actinomycin, and the development of the industrial production by

fermentation Fermentation is a type of anaerobic metabolism which harnesses the redox potential of the reactants to make adenosine triphosphate (ATP) and organic end products. Organic molecules, such as glucose or other sugars, are catabolized and reduce ...

of many natural products, including

cyanocobalamin Cyanocobalamin is a form of Vitamin B12, vitamin used to treat and prevent vitamin B12 deficiency, vitamin deficiency except in the presence of cyanide toxicity. The deficiency may occur in pernicious anemia, following gastrectomy, surgical r ...

(a synthetic form of

Vitamin B12 Vitamin B12, also known as cobalamin, is a water-soluble vitamin involved in metabolism. One of eight B vitamins, it serves as a vital cofactor (biochemistry), cofactor in DNA synthesis and both fatty acid metabolism, fatty acid and amino a ...

, the

avermectin The avermectins are a group of 16-membered Macrolide, macrocyclic lactone derivatives with potent anthelmintic and Insecticide, insecticidal properties. These naturally occurring compounds are generated as fermentation products by ''Streptomyces a ...

s, and other important antibiotics.

Biography

He was born in

Bridgeton, New Jersey Bridgeton is a City (New Jersey), city in Cumberland County, New Jersey, Cumberland County, within the U.S. state of New Jersey. It is the county seat of Cumberland County Great Depression The Great Depression was a severe global economic downturn from 1929 to 1939. The period was characterized by high rates of unemployment and poverty, drastic reductions in industrial production and international trade, and widespread bank and ...

. His family relocated to

Buffalo, New York Buffalo is a Administrative divisions of New York (state), city in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York and county seat of Erie County, New York, Erie County. It lies in Western New York at the eastern end of Lake Erie, at the head of ...

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States between the East Coast of the United States ...

and

Florida Florida ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders the Gulf of Mexico to the west, Alabama to the northwest, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the north, the Atlantic ...

before returning to his home state. After returning to

Hopewell Township, Cumberland County, New Jersey Hopewell Township is a Township (New Jersey), township in Cumberland County, New Jersey, Cumberland County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It is part of the Vineland, New Jersey, Vineland-Bridgeton, New Jersey, Bridgeton metropolitan statisti ...

, he was able to make up the half-year of school he lost while in Florida attending a school in Shiloh that required him to walk several miles each day. He later attended Hopewell Township School before moving on to

Bridgeton High School Bridgeton High School is a comprehensive community public high school that serves students in ninth through twelfth grades from the city of Bridgeton, in Cumberland County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey, operating as part of the Bridgeton P ...

. He received a bachelor's degree in soil chemistry from

Rutgers University Rutgers University ( ), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a Public university, public land-grant research university consisting of three campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's C ...

, followed by a Ph.D. from the same university in soil microbiology; his advisor was

Selman Waksman Selman Abraham Waksman (July 22, 1888 – August 16, 1973) was a Russian-born American inventor, biochemist and microbiologist, whose research into the decomposition of organisms that live in soil enabled the discovery of streptomycin and severa ...

. In his doctoral work, he discovered the antibiotics actinomycin and streptothricin. Albert Schatz used the leads from Woodruff's development of streptothricin to create

streptomycin Streptomycin is an antibiotic medication used to treat a number of bacterial infections, including tuberculosis, Mycobacterium avium complex, ''Mycobacterium avium'' complex, endocarditis, brucellosis, Burkholderia infection, ''Burkholderia'' i ...

. As part of a lawsuit challenging Schatz's claim as discoverer of streptomycin, Woodruff was awarded 2% of the royalties, which he used to fund a scholarship for students at Rutgers studying microbiology. He died on January 19, 2017, at the age of 99 at his home in

Watchung, New Jersey Watchung () is a borough in Somerset County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey, located approximately west of New York City. As of the 2020 United States census, the borough's population was 6,449, an increase of 648 (+11.2%) from the 2010 ce ...

.Roberts, Sam
"H. Boyd Woodruff, Microbiologist Who Paved Way for Antibiotics, Dies at 99"
''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'', February 3, 2017. Accessed February 4, 2017.

Career

He spent his career as a researcher at Merck & Co., rising to the position of Executive Director of Biological Sciences, and Executive Administrator of the Merck Sharp & Dohme Research Laboratories in Japan. After retirement, he founded the firm Soil Microbiology Associates together with his wife Jeanette.

Honors

Woodruff was elected to the Animal, Nutritional, and Applied Microbial Sciences section of the

in 1998, received the Waksman Award from the

Theobald Smith Theobald Smith Royal Society of London, FRS(For) HFRSE (July 31, 1859 – December 10, 1934) was a pioneering epidemiology, epidemiologist, bacteriologist, pathology, pathologist and professor. Smith is widely considered to be America's first int ...

Society in 2007, and received the NAS Award for the Industrial Application of Science in 2011.

References

External links

Joan Wennstrom Bennett and Arnold L. Demain, "H. Boyd Woodruff", Biographical Memoirs of the National Academy of Sciences (2018)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Woodruff, H. Boyd 1917 births 2017 deaths American microbiologists Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences Rutgers University alumni Bridgeton High School alumni People from Bridgeton, New Jersey People from Hopewell Township, Cumberland County, New Jersey People from Watchung, New Jersey 20th-century American scientists 21st-century American scientists Scientists from New Jersey