Albert Sabin, born on August 26, 1906 in Poland, emigrated with his family to the United States in 1921, completing his medical education at New York University. In 1939, Sabin accepted a position at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, remaining there for 30 years, earning innumerable accolades for his teaching, administrative and consultancy work. Sabin developed a live version of the polio vaccine from weaker strains of the virus to capitalize on the antibodies that develop in some individuals who contracted the virus. Thanks to Sabin’s work, the last appearance of a polio case in the United States occurred in 1979. Sabin died on March 3, 1993. Albert Sabin was made a Great Ohioan in 2012.
Photo courtesy of the Archives University of Cincinnati.