write a few lines about ronald ross research

Famous Scientists

Ronald Ross

Ronald Ross is famous for his work concerning malaria and was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1902. He discovered that the salivary gland in the mosquito was the storage site of malarial parasites and using infected birds, he demonstrated the full life cycle of the malarial parasitic organism.

He became the first director of the Ross Institute and Hospital for Tropical Diseases in 1926; an institute established to honor his works.

Early Life and Educational Background

Ronald Ross was born on 13 May in 1857 at the Himalayan hill station in Almora, India. He was the eldest son of Sir Campbell Claye Grant Ross, a general of the British Army and Matilda Charlotte Elderton. The eldest of ten children, aged eight, he was sent to England where he lived with his great uncle, a retired doctor.

For his elementary education Ronald attended a primary school at Ryde and he was sent in 1869 to a boarding school in Springhill, near Southampton. He was still just a boy when he developed a love for music, literature, poems, and mathematics. At the age of 14, he won a prize for mathematics and was presented with the book “Orbs of Heaven” which sparked his interest in this field.

Aged 16, Ronald secured first position in the drawing exams. Because of his love for poems and literature, he initially wanted to be a writer; but he accepted his father’s wishes and enrolled at St Bartholomew’s Hospital Medical College in London in 1874.

Initially Ross was not fully committed to the path he has chosen and spent a lot of his time writing plays, poems and composing his own music. Nevertheless, Ross graduated in 1880 having passed the examinations for the Royal College of Surgeons of England in 1879.

Ross then worked as a ship’s surgeon, his first position being on a transatlantic steamship. At the same time, he advanced his knowledge by studying to obtain a license for the Society of Apothecaries. Passing on his second attempt in 1881, he qualified which allowed him to join the Army Medical School and he entered Indian Medical Service in 1881.

Career and Achievements

Ross, now qualified, left for India in September 1881 and moved around India with various postings for seven years.

In 1883, Ross became the Acting Garrison Surgeon of Bangalore and it was then he realized how to control mosquitoes and the propagation of malaria by limiting the mosquitoes’ access to water.

During a return to England on a furlough in 1888 Ross continued his education and obtained a Diploma in Public Health from the Royal College of Physicians and Royal College of Surgeons. Ross also took a course in bacteriology taught by Professor E.E. Klein.

Ross developed an interest in malaria research and corresponded with Patrick Manson, the leading British expert on tropical diseases. French army doctor Laveran and Manson had both observed a parasite in blood samples of malaria victims and suggested that this parasite was the cause of malaria.

In 1894 Ross set his mind on determining how mosquitoes propagated malaria. For two and a half years, he achieved little success. In the spring of 1897 Ross was granted research leave and spent some time at the malaria infected area of Sigur Ghat, near the hill station of Ootacamund. There, he caught malaria and managed to treat himself successfully with quinine.

In August 1897 he managed to culture 20 adult “brown” and “dapple-winged” mosquitoes from collected larvae and fed them on the blood of a malaria victim. Ross then dissected the stomach of a mosquito that had fed on the blood of a malaria victim and discovered the malarial parasite; this established Laveran and Manson’s hypothesis as a fact.

His research continued while he was working at the Presidency General Hospital in 1898 in Kolkata. He studied in his own bungalow with a laboratory at Mahanad village. From time to time, he went around the village to collect mosquitoes with the help of the Indian scientist Kishori Mohan Bandyopadhyay.

In July 1898 Ross discovered that the salivary gland in the mosquito was the storage site of malarial parasites. He used infected birds to demonstrate the full life cycle of the parasitic organism.

Ross resigned from the Indian medical Service in 1899 and returned to England where he became a lecturer at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine.

He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1901 and to the Royal College of Surgeons the same year.

Ross continued his work on malaria prevention and was promoted as the Professor and Chair of Tropical Medicine of the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine come 1902.

He was awarded a Nobel Prize for “his work on malaria, by which he has shown how it enters the organism and thereby has laid the foundation for successful research on this disease and methods of combating it” in 1902. Ross was a prolific writer during his career. His book “The Prevention of malaria” was published in 1910.

Ross was knighted in 1911 and in 1912 he was appointed as London’s Physician for Tropical Diseases at King’s College Hospital.

During the First World War Ross was made a consultant in malaria to the War Office; he travelled to various locations including Egypt, Macedonia and Italy. After the war he became a consultant with the Ministry of Pensions.

The Ross Institute and Hospital for Tropical Diseases was founded in 1926 and Ross was the first director, a position he held until his death.

He married Rosa Bessie Bloxam in 1889 and they had four children, two sons and two daughters. He died due to a long-term illness coupled with asthma on 16 September 1932, aged 75 and was buried next to his wife in Putney Vale Cemetery.

More from FamousScientists.org:

Alphabetical List of Scientists

Ernesto Illy | Jan Ingenhousz | Ernst Ising | Keisuke Ito

Hans Christian Oersted | Georg Ohm | J. Robert Oppenheimer | Wilhelm Ostwald | William Oughtred

Adolphe Quetelet | Harriet Quimby | Thabit ibn Qurra

Harold Urey

Chen-Ning Yang

Ahmed Zewail

History & Society
Science & Tech
Biographies
Animals & Nature
Geography & Travel
Arts & Culture
Games & Quizzes
On This Day
One Good Fact
New Articles
Lifestyles & Social Issues
Philosophy & Religion
Politics, Law & Government
World History
Health & Medicine
Browse Biographies
Birds, Reptiles & Other Vertebrates
Bugs, Mollusks & Other Invertebrates
Environment
Fossils & Geologic Time
Entertainment & Pop Culture
Sports & Recreation
Visual Arts
Demystified
Image Galleries
Infographics
Top Questions
Britannica Kids
Saving Earth
Space Next 50
Student Center

Sir Ronald Ross

Our editors will review what you’ve submitted and determine whether to revise the article.

The Nobel Foundation - Biography of Ronald Ross
Linda Hall Library - Scientist of the Day - Biography of Ronald Ross
Ronald Ross - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up)

Sir Ronald Ross (born May 13, 1857, Almora , India—died Sept. 16, 1932, Putney Heath, London , Eng.) was a British doctor who received the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1902 for his work on malaria . His discovery of the malarial parasite in the gastrointestinal tract of the Anopheles mosquito led to the realization that malaria was transmitted by Anopheles, and laid the foundation for combating the disease .

After graduating in medicine (1879), Ross entered the Indian Medical Service and served in the third Anglo-Burmese War (1885). On leave he studied bacteriology in London (1888–89) and then returned to India , where, prompted by Patrick Manson’s guidance and assistance, he began (1895) a series of investigations on malaria. He discovered the presence of the malarial parasite within the Anopheles mosquito in 1897. Using birds that were sick with malaria, he was soon able to ascertain the entire life cycle of the malarial parasite, including its presence in the mosquito’s salivary glands. He demonstrated that malaria is transmitted from infected birds to healthy ones by the bite of a mosquito, a finding that suggested the disease’s mode of transmission to humans.

Ross returned to England in 1899 and joined the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine. He was knighted in 1911. In 1912 he became physician for tropical diseases at King’s College Hospital, London, and later director of the Ross Institute and Hospital for Tropical Diseases, founded in his honour. In addition to mathematical papers, poems, and fictional works, he wrote The Prevention of Malaria (1910).

[ Back to The Nobel Prize Internet Archive ] [ Literature * Peace * Chemistry * Physics * Economics * Medicine ] We always welcome your feedback and comments . Copyright © 1996-2003 Ona Wu. All rights reserved.

An official website of the United States government

The .gov means it’s official. Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

The site is secure. The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Publications
Account settings

Preview improvements coming to the PMC website in October 2024. Learn More or Try it out now .

Advanced Search
Journal List
Bull World Health Organ
v.85(11); 2007 Nov

Malaria, mosquitoes and the legacy of Ronald Ross

Robert e sinden.

a Division of Cell and Molecular Biology, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Imperial College, London SW7 2AZ, England.

This section looks back to some ground-breaking contributions to public health, reproducing them in their original form and adding a commentary on their significance from a modern-day perspective. Robert E Sinden reviews Ronald Ross’s pivotal work on the malaria parasite and comments on the potential for malaria vector research and control.

ON SOME PECULIAR PIGMENTED CELLS FOUND IN TWO MOSQUITOS FED ON MALARIAL BLOOD.

By surgeon-major ronald ross, i.m.s., (with note by surgeon-major smyth, m.d, i.m.s.).

For the last two years I have been endeavouring to cultivate the parasite of malaria in the mosquito. The method adopted has been to feed mosquitos, bred in bottles from the larva, on patients having crescents in the blood, and then to examine their tissues for parasites similar to the haemamoeba in man. The study is a difficult one, as there is no a priori indication of what the derived parasite will be like precisely, nor in what particular species of insect the experiment will be successful, while the investigation requires a thorough knowledge of the minute anatomy of the mosquito. Hitherto the species employed have been mostly brindled and grey varieties of the insect; but though I have been able to find no fewer than six new parasite of the mosquito, namely a nematode, a fungus, a gregarine, a sarcosporidium (?), a coccidium (?), and certain swarm spores in the stomach, besides one or two doubtfully parasitic forms, I have not yet succeeded in tracing any parasite to the ingestion of malarial blood, nor in observing special protozoa in the evacuations due to such digestion.

For the full text of the paper by Ronald Ross ( BMJ 1897;Dec 18) please see: http://resources.bmj.com/bmj/readers/back-issues-and-archive

In 1895, Ronald Ross was based in Sekunderabad, India, where he embarked on his quest to determine whether mosquitoes transmitted malaria parasites of man. For two years his studies were clouded by observations on what we now know to be insusceptible mosquito species. He nonetheless observed “flagellation” of Plasmodium in the bloodmeal of these insects, the true nature of which was revealed by McCallum in 1897. 1 Ross’s later work also benefited from the numerous observations on insects infected by other parasites (including helminths, fungi and gregarines) he made in this early phase of his quest for the malaria vector. Eventually in July 1897 he reared 20 adult “brown” mosquitoes from collected larvae. Following identification of a volunteer (Husein Khan) infected with crescents of malignant tertian malaria and the expenditure of 8 annas (one anna per blood-fed mosquito!), Ross embarked on a four-day study of the resultant engorged insects. This “compact” study was written up and submitted for publication.

Imagine today sending an article to a leading medical journal in which you describe observations on novel objects found on the midguts of just two “brown” mosquitoes, obtained from larvae of natural origin, that you had previously fed on a naturally infected patient – with no appropriate controls and no replicates! What hope would it have of getting past the editor and reviewers? Thankfully, Ronald Ross’s paper was more fortunate: it was published by the British Medical Journal on 18 December 1897. 2 His conclusions were understandably modest. “To sum up: The [putative malarial] cells appear to be very exceptional; they have as yet been found only in a single species of mosquito fed on malarial blood; they seem to grow between the fourth and fifth day; and they contain the characteristic pigment of the parasite of malaria.” So begins one of the most influential stories for malaria research and control.

Recognizing the relative simplicity of the research tools available to Ross, the observations made by him and his collaborators using simple brightfield microscopy were exceptional. He had just eight “brown” mosquitoes that had fed on the patient with P. falciparum gametocytes in his blood. Four mosquitoes were killed immediately to examine the fabulous process of exflagellation (male gamete production), so critical to the discovery of the bloodstages of the parasite by Laveran seventeen years earlier. 3 One mosquito was dissected on the second day to no advantage and two on the fourth day, of which one had twelve “substantial cells”. The description of these cells, the malarial oocysts (formed through the developmental progression: gametocyte-gamete-zygote-ookinete-oocyst) is unmistakeable. The characteristic round/oval shape, the diameter (10–16 microns), the sharp line of the oocyst wall and the nature and distribution of the malarial pigment were reported with precision. The presence of pigment was critical in Ross’s eyes, but even this, his defining character, was nonetheless cautiously considered as potentially being a mosquito-derived product of bloodmeal digestion. On the fifth day he dissected the last mosquito and noted 21 cells with the same visual properties, but larger (he estimated the diameter to be about 20 microns). Few today would complain about oocyst intensities and prevalences such as this. There were, however, no controls, such as mosquitoes from the same source fed on a crescent/gametocyte-negative volunteer. In this regard Ross excuses himself, stating “I have not yet succeeded in obtaining any more of the species of mosquito referred to,” and felt it was adequate to describe results from other mosquito species (including a genus Aedes now known to be refractory to infection by P. falciparum ) fed on different volunteers. While hardly conforming to the concept of a controlled and replicated study, Ross commendably obtained, and reported fully, a second opinion on the nature of the preparations from Surgeon-Major John Smyth, whose comments are very detailed. The formaldehyde-fixed specimens were then considered to be of such potential importance that they were shipped from Sekunderabad to the United Kingdom to be observed by Manson, Sutton and Thin. Their observations and reviews are also reported in the publication. Manson and Sutton enthusiastically endorsed the views expressed by Ross, and the drawings Manson commissioned unquestionably illustrate oocysts that are either undergoing sporoblast formation before sporozoite budding or possibly degenerating (should the “pebbled” appearance indicate vacuolation). In contrast, Thin sets about a thorough dismemberment of the interpretations of his four colleagues, concluding through logical argument (but with no evidence) that they were describing midgut epithelial cells in which pigment had been phagocytosed from the gut lumen. He then diplomatically apologizes for his unsupportive interpretation!

What can we learn from this seminal publication that is relevant to today’s research environment? First, the importance of seizing the opportunity. Second – and related – persistence: Ross recounts that, before the reported successful experiment, work in the preceding two years examining about a thousand brindled, grey and white mosquitoes had failed to reveal any relevant data. Third, the power and importance of careful observation combined with exact and objective recording. Finally, the benefit of sharing data before publication so as to put forward conflicting interpretations of the results. Notwithstanding these commendable attributes, nobody today would have condemned the editor if he had had rejected such a speculative, uncontrolled and unreplicated study.

Irrespective of the perceived inadequacies of the study design, it is difficult to overstate the importance of Ross’s paper: the award of a Nobel Prize hardly does justice to the subsequent impact of his conclusions. The biological significance of the paper lies in three areas: basic research; malaria transmission/epidemiology, and the identification of what is perhaps the most vulnerable stage in the parasite life-cycle for effective intervention. The last was very quickly recognized (inevitably in the military–political context) and resulted in the rapid adoption of environmental vector control campaigns (personal protection and house screening to prevent contact with the adult mosquito, and water management to destroy larval breeding sites). These were followed in the 1930s by the introduction of effective insecticides including the “wonder compound” DDT which, together with the new antimalarial drug chloroquine, formed the foundation of the ill-fated but very successful global control campaign of the 1950s and 1960s.

It was immediately clear from these early control campaigns that attacking mosquito vectors of malaria can be one of the most effective ways to reduce the transmission of disease in endemic areas. Research today is identifying an ever-wider range of potential intervention technologies and targets to achieve this objective. In addition to continued refinements of established environmental management and insecticide programmes, a major step forward has been made through the design of effective and environmentally friendly insecticide-treated bednets. New concepts for the reduction of mosquito populations by biological control have been introduced. Variants of this theme include the use of larvivorous predators ( Gambusia and Tilapia ), pathogens, e.g. bacteria ( Bacillus thuringiensis israelensis ), fungi ( Beauveria ) and viruses ( Bacculovirus ). Most recently it has been suggested that genetic control of vector populations may be possible. Methods proposed include the introduction of lethal homing endonucleases, 4 the disruption of the olfactory mechanisms that guide the potential vector to the human host, 5 introduction of cytoplasmic incompatibility induced by the endosymbiont Wolbachia , 6 or genetic dominant-lethal technologies. 7 Only time and objective study will reveal which, if any, of these approaches will prove to have the appropriate combination of efficacy and practicality to reduce vector populations.

It matters not whether we block the dissemination of Plasmodium through endemic populations by killing the vector or the parasite within the vector, the impact upon malaria transmission is comparable. In this regard, the exciting basic studies now under way on the biology of the Plasmodium in Anopheles , of vector–parasite interactions, and on the mosquito innate immune system have already given us insights into yet more methods by which to modulate parasite dissemination. The question as to whether any mosquito gene that confers refractoriness to Plasmodium can be driven into the vector populations remains a challenging and interesting area for investigation. Recognizing the evolutionary forces that have driven the current global distribution and genetic structures of parasite, human and mosquito populations, we must be aware that, just as the fitness cost to the human host in being genetically resistant to Plasmodium (e.g. sickle cell anaemia) has driven a balanced polymorphism (stable resistance–gene frequency), the cost to the vector of being refractory to Plasmodium may itself be a constraining influence on the future introduction of refractory genes by genetic manipulation technologies.

Notwithstanding the caveats expressed above, intervention in the vector – but targeted directly at the parasite – is one of the more rational approaches to attack parasite populations. Transmission-blocking vaccines are the exemplar intervention of this type. The reasons for this optimism are founded on the precarious nature of the transmission. Of the thousands of parasites (gametocytes) that might be ingested by the female mosquito, just a handful survive to form the oocysts (as described by Ross in his paper), and this in a small fraction of the vector population. Similarly, the parasite passes through another constraint as it returns, in the form of sporozoites, from the vector to the human host. Although military analogy suggests that such bottlenecks are invariably the best targets for attack, we must further recognize that exposing one’s chosen intervention strategy to 10 9 parasite genomes per host (e.g. bloodstage infections) as opposed to 5–50 genomes per host (e.g. the oocyst) is more likely to lead to the rapid selection of resistant mutations. Second, vaccine efficacy is critically influenced by the exposure time of the parasite to the effector mechanism 8 ; in the case of current transmission-blocking vaccine targets such as Pv25 and 28 9 this exposure time is 24 hours, as opposed to a few minutes per cycle for vaccines targeting the surface of the bloodstage merozoite. Third, problems that can hinder the development of some bloodstage/sporozoite vaccine include antigenic polymorphism and antigenic diversity, two molecular mechanisms that are logically considered to have evolved in the parasite to overcome the adaptive immune systems of the vertebrate hosts. The mosquito, on current evidence, does not have an adaptive immune system, and it is interesting to note that those molecules expressed de novo on the surface of the malarial ookinete in the mosquito midgut are comparatively non-polymorphic 10 , 11 and do not undergo antigenic variation, thus rendering them relatively stable global targets for any vaccine. It is encouraging to record the early human trials of pv25 suggest that these vaccines, first described in avian and rodent models, successfully induced 30% blockade of transmission. 9

An area that for many years has not received the attention it deserves is that of drugs that can target the stages of the parasite responsible for transmission, and which have a realistic possibility of being exposed to effective drug concentrations (if delivered from the human host), i.e. the gametocyte, zygote and ookinete. While it is now known that the gametocyte arrests in the cell cycle with increasing maturity, and is therefore less susceptible than the schizogonic blood stages to many antimetabolites, it is now appreciated that drugs targeting energy metabolism, such as artemesinin and Malarone, can reduce transmission to the vector. 12 Recent proteomic studies further suggest that energy metabolism is upregulated in the ookinete which might render this stage more sensitive to such inhibitors. 13 In view of the high cost of antimalarial drug development, it is a source of constant concern that all potential antimalarials are not routinely screened for their potential to suppress (or indeed enhance!) mosquito infection. Had it been recognized that chloroquine can enhance the infectivity of the drug-insensitive mature gametocytes, 14 it might have been administered differently and might perhaps still be of use today.

Without detracting from the outstanding individual and global efforts made, we have waited far too long to capitalize effectively on the seminal observation made by Ross 110 years ago. The fact that malaria remains as serious a world problem today as it was when Ross and Laveran made their insightful contributions reflects not only the scale and complexity of the interacting populations of Plasmodium , mosquitoes and human hosts, but also our financial and political priorities, and perhaps the competitive as opposed to collegiate manner in which research can be supported and conducted. Notwithstanding the most earnest and sustained endeavours of numerous private, national and international agencies, governmental and scientific attitudes must change if the potential for malaria control revealed by the studies of Ross, Manson and their Italian contemporaries is ever to be achieved. The parasite will inexorably evolve, our priorities and attitudes must evolve faster. ■

Science Museum
National Science and Media Museum
Science and Industry Museum
National Railway Museum
Science and Innovation Park

Sir Ronald Ross 1857 - 1932

1857-1932, bacteriologist, Scottish; British

As a doctor in the Indian Medical Service, Ronald Ross proved in 1897 the long-suspected link between mosquitoes and malaria. In doing so he confirmed the hypotheses previously put forward independently by scientists Alphonse Laveran and Sir Patrick Manson. Ross was subsequently awarded the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1902.

Born in India, where his father was based as a soldier, Ross had seen the devastation caused by malaria at first hand, but it was not until 1892 that he began to study it scientifically. By this time, both Laveran and Manson - Ross’s mentor - had observed the presence of a parasite in blood samples taken from patients suffering from the disease.

In August 1897, Ross made his crucial discovery. While dissecting the stomach of a mosquito fed on the blood a malaria victim, he found the previously observed parasite. Through further study he established the complete life cycle of this parasitic organism (plasmodium). He was knighted in 1911 and in 1926 became Director of the Ross Institute and Hospital for Tropical Diseases in London, which was founded in his honour.

Related Objects

Dissecting microscope used by Sir Ronald Ross

Portable microscope, 1891-1910

Ross "pop" safety valve.

Plaster plaque depicting Sir Ronald Ross who investigated malaria mosquito

Box for dissecting microscope used by sir ronald ross.

Ronald Ross Biography

Birthday: May 13 , 1857 ( Taurus )

Born In: Almora, India

Recommended For You

British Celebrities Born In May

Also Known As: Sir Ronald Ross

Died At Age: 75

Spouse/Ex-: Rosa Bessie Bloxam

father: Campbell Claye Grant Ross

mother: Matilda Charlotte Elderton

siblings: Charles Ross

children: Dorothy Ross, Ronald Ross , Sylvia Ross

British Men Male Physicians

Died on: September 16 , 1932

place of death: London, England

Grouping of People: Nobel Laureates in Medicine

Cause of Death: Asthma Attack

Ancestry: Scottish Indian

Notable Alumni: Society Of Apothecaries, St Bartholomew's Hospital Medical College

education: Society of Apothecaries, St Bartholomew's Hospital Medical College

awards: 1902 - Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1923 - James Tait Black Memorial Prize - Biography - Memoirs

Recommended Lists:

See the events in life of Ronald Ross in Chronological Order

How To Cite

Download App

Remembering Ronald Ross and 6 other great scientists who have won the Nobel Prize for discovering lifesaving medicine

Ronald ross, a british medical doctor who linked the disease of malaria to mosquitoes, was born in almora, in present-day uttarakhand, india..

Listen to Story

Remembering Ronald Ross and 6 other great scientists who have won the Nobel Prize for discovering lifesaving medicine

Ronald Ross, a British medical doctor who linked the disease of Malaria to mosquitoes, was born in Almora, in present-day Uttarakhand on May 13,1857. For his work on the transmission of the disease, Ross received the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1902.

Ross made the path breaking medical discovery while he was working at the Indian Medical Service. After serving for 25 years in India, Ross, in 1926, became the Director-in-Chief of the Ross Institute and Hospital for Tropical Diseases, which was established in honour of his works.

Let's take a look at 7 such historical breakthroughs in medicine and physiology that bagged a Nobel:

1 cure to diphtheria.

2 Identification of malaria

3 Discovery of Insulin

4 Discovery of blood groups

5 Functions of neurons

6 Discovery of Penicillin

Hyderabad's Ronald Ross: Remembered but also forgotten

Think malaria and the first name that comes to mind is Sir Ronald Ross and his Nobel Prize winning work on the parasite that causes it. For the more informed, especially Hyderabadis, his ground-breaking work in the backwaters of the Hussainsagar lake, should be familiar stuff.

Today is the 163rd birth anniversary of Ronald Ross, who is symbolically recognised, but for all practical purposes forgotten even in the cities where he did most of his work: Hyderabad and Kolkata.

Recognised because an important road from the Begumpet Airport was named after him, and a small government hospital and the Institute of Parasitology at the Osmania University were set up over a decade ago in his honour. Sadly, however, the road has virtually shrunk in length and is all but forgotten; and the hospital and institute are in a state of neglect.

The Almora-born British medical doctor became the first winner of the Nobel Prize for Physiology and Medicine (1902) for work done in Asia, for identifying the pathway of transmission of malaria after painstaking research on the parasite Plasmodium falciparum.

Ronald Ross made his landmark discovery on August 20, 1897, in Secunderabad. He discovered the malaria parasite while cutting the tissues in the stomach of a female Anopheles mosquito that had fed on a patient.

The discovery proved the mosquito's role in transmission of the disease to humans. Later, in 1898, in Kolkata, Dr Ross worked out the life history of the malaria parasite in birds.

The last time I visited the Ronald Ross Institute of Parasitology, adjacent to the Begumpet Airport, where the reputed doctor did his pioneering work, I found it desolate. With the 102-year-old Osmania University itself starved of funds and slipping rapidly in research in the last few years, the fortunes of the Institute could only have headed south.

It is a paradox that the country where epoch-making research was done on malaria still cannot boast of developing a drug or vaccine for it and in loses about a million lives to outbreaks of the disease annually.

The market for claimed control, including a range of gadgets, coils etc is thriving, while millions of people have learnt to live with the routine bites and stings of the mosquito every night.

Interestingly, and perhaps coincidentally, as the Covid 19 pandemic spreads fast and affects millions, one of the anti-malarial formulations called hydroxychloroquine, has raised hopes of controlling the coronavirus.

It got a big boost with the US president Donald Trump rooting for it. Trump reportedly put pressure on Indian prime minister Narendra Modi to supply it to his country. For a few weeks, some of the Indian pharma majors got orders to supply the drug to a few nations.

However, the euphoria seems to have been short-lived as researchers and medical professionals are finding that the anti-malarial drug developed in the 1930s may after all not be the ‘magic bullet’ to treat the virus.

With the monsoon season fast approaching and doctors warning of the associated outbreaks of viral and waterborne bacterial diseases, the usual problems of dengue, chickunguniya and malaria (all caused by mosquitos carrying parasite) loom large. How coronavirus will manifest amidst all these factors is anybody’s guess.

Perhaps, Hyderabad, the city that opened the eyes of the world to malaria, should use the opportunity to strengthen healthcare facilities and research work in those named after Ross. A great chance to set an example in not just honouring a great hero of science, but also in tackling modern challenges well.

M Somasekhar is a senior journalist based in Hyderabad

Latest News

You are using an outdated browser. Please upgrade your browser to improve your experience and security.

Enhanced Page Navigation

Ronald Ross - Banquet speech

Ronald Ross

Banquet speech.

Ronald Ross’s speech at the Nobel Banquet in Stockholm, December 10, 1902

Your Royal Highnesses, grefve Mörner and gentlemen,

I beg to thank you for the very great honour you have done me in drinking to my health this evening; and you, Professor Mörner, for the eloquent and flattering terms in which you proposed the toast. I beg to accept the honour, not only for myself, but for all those who have laboured so long at the important subject of malaria. Permit me, at this auspicious moment, to mention the names of some of those to whom humanity owes so much, but who have not always been as fortunate as myself in receiving reward for their labours. I will begin with the great name of Laveran , who more than twenty years ago discovered the cause of malaria and created a new branch of science – Laveran, that true man of science who has honoured me by permitting me to call him my master. I will mention next the names of Golgi , that most distinguished Italian; of Danilewsky, of Marchiafava, and Celli, of Kelsch, of Mannaberg, of Bignami, Romanowsky, Sakharof, Canalis, Bastianelli, Dionisi, Vandyke Carter, the two Plehns, Ziemann, Thayer, and not least, MacCallum, who, with a host of others no less meritorious, consolidated the discovery of Laveran. Turning now to the subject of malaria and mosquitoes, I must first mention those who created the hypothesis, namely King, in America, Koch , in Germany, Laveran, in France, and particularly Manson, in England, whose profound induction formed the basis of my own humble endeavours, and whom I shall always esteem one of my masters. Now permit me the honour of naming those who in all parts of the world confirmed and amplified those elements of the truth which I had found in India – the great Koch and his German colleagues; Bignami, Bastianelli, and Celli, in Italy; Daniels, Stephens, Christophers, Ziemann, Annett, Dutton, Elliott, Van der Scheer, Van Birlekom, Manson and his son, Fernside James, Nuttall, Austen, Theobald, Howard and many others. Nor let us by any means forget those who are endeavouring to turn these discoveries to practical account for the saving of human life on a large scale, particularly Koch, Sir William MacGregor, Celli, Logan Taylor and Gorgas; and, not least, Sir Alfred Jones and those merchants of London and Liverpool who are spending their money freely for the same great cause.

In conclusion, gentlemen, I hope you will permit me to utter a personal note. I cannot help comparing the present moment with that when, seven years ago, I commenced the researches for which you have today given me such great honour. I cannot help remembering the dingy little military hospital, the old cracked microscope, and the medicine bottles which constituted all the laboratory and apparatus which I possessed for the purpose of attacking one of the most redoubtable of scientific problems. Today I have received in this most beautiful capital of the north, the most distinguished of all scientific honours from the hand of your king himself. Gentlemen, I can do no more than thank you.

Prior to the speech, Professor the Count K.A.H. Mörner, Rector of the Royal Caroline Institute, addressed the laureate:

Professor Ross,

It is a long way from Sweden to India. But we will accompany you – in our thoughts – back to the scene of your efforts and success.

Your enterprise about malaria was a troublesome one. Far from scientific centres and their resources, occupied by your duties, being an army surgeon, you wished to pave the way for science, where other investigators had tried it in vain.

Thousands of experiments were made; the door to the sought-for realm of science remained closed. Many inquirers would have thought they were going wrong. But for your perseverance and your faithful belief in the value of Manson’s induction, you would have shrunk from the difficulties.

At last your assiduous efforts and your penetrative genius gained the victory and gave an extensive solution of the malaria-problem.

Already once before today I have mentioned the importance of your work. Your followers – if they be just – will testify, that your discoveries have been the basis, from which the knowledge of malaria has of late proceeded so successfully.

You have yourself taken part in working out the matter. I beg to draw attention to the malariaexpeditions in Africa, of which you have been a partaker. I venture to express the conviction that in the future science will be still more indebted to you.

Now your results are a common wealth that gives the investigators the possibility of advancing, each in his sphere, the knowledge concerning malaria. If we would follow the propagation of your discoveries and visit all the places, where they are used for whetting weapons against malaria, we must go round the world. But we return and join in congratulating you on your exceedingly beautiful work and pledge your health.

Nobel Prizes and laureates

Nobel prizes 2023.

Explore prizes and laureates

IMAGES

Scientist Ronald Ross: Biography & Discovery
Ronald Ross
Ronald Ross quote: The student of biology is often struck with the
Sir Ronald Ross quote
Ronald Ross, British physician
Sir Ronald Ross

COMMENTS

Ronald Ross
Ronald Ross was born in Almora, India, and educated in Great Britain. In 1881 he became a military medical officer in India, and it was there that he began studying how malaria was propagated. Ross began working in West Africa in 1899 to find a way to combat malaria. He was a multifaceted person interested in poetry and music as well as ...
Ronald Ross
Sir Ronald Ross KCB KCMG FRS FRCS [1] [2] (13 May 1857 - 16 September 1932) was a British medical doctor who received the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1902 for his work on the transmission of malaria, becoming the first British Nobel laureate, and the first born outside Europe.His discovery of the malarial parasite in the gastrointestinal tract of a mosquito in 1897 proved that ...
Ronald Ross
Lived 1857 - 1932. Ronald Ross is famous for his work concerning malaria and was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1902. He discovered that the salivary gland in the mosquito was the storage site of malarial parasites and using infected birds, he demonstrated the full life cycle of the malarial parasitic organism.
Ronald Ross
Biographical. Ronald Ross was born on May 13, 1857, as the son of Sir C.C.G. Ross, a General in the English army. He commenced the study of medicine at St. Bartholomew's Hospital in London in 1875; entered the Indian Medical Service in 1881. He commenced the study of malaria in 1892. In 1894 he determined to make an experimental investigation ...
Sir Ronald Ross
Sir Ronald Ross (born May 13, 1857, Almora, India—died Sept. 16, 1932, Putney Heath, London, Eng.) was a British doctor who received the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1902 for his work on malaria. His discovery of the malarial parasite in the gastrointestinal tract of the Anopheles mosquito led to the realization that malaria was ...
Ronald Ross: Pioneer of Malaria Research and Nobel Laureate
Sir Ronald Ross, a British medical doctor and researcher, is renowned for his pioneering work in malaria research. His discovery of the malaria parasite's lifecycle within mosquitoes revolutionized the understanding and control of malaria, transitioning the field from the miasma theory to vector-based strategies. This literature review aims to explore the comprehensive contributions of Ronald ...
Scientist Ronald Ross: Biography & Discovery
Ross did not give up on his other ambitions and continued writing and published a novel. In 1889 he married Rosa Bessie Bloxam, with whom he eventually had four children, and returned to his work ...
Ronald Ross
Ronald Ross. 1857-1932. British Physician, Parasitologist and Epidemiologist. Ronald Ross was awarded the Nobel Prize for medicine in 1902 for elucidating the role of the Anopheles mosquito in the transmission of malaria. By explaining the complex life history of the malarial parasite, he made it possible to understand aspects of the problems of malarial fevers that had confounded physicians ...
Sir Ronald Ross Winner of the 1902 Nobel Prize in Medicine
S IR R ONALD R OSS. 1902 Nobel Laureate in Medicine. for his work on malaria, by which he has shown how it enters the organism and thereby has laid the foundation for successful resesarch on this disease and methods of combating it. Background. 1857-1932. Place of Birth: Almora (India)
Ronald Ross
The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1902 was awarded to Ronald Ross "for his work on malaria, by which he has shown how it enters the organism and thereby has laid the foundation for successful research on this disease and methods of combating it"
Malaria, mosquitoes and the legacy of Ronald Ross
In 1895, Ronald Ross was based in Sekunderabad, India, where he embarked on his quest to determine whether mosquitoes transmitted malaria parasites of man. For two years his studies were clouded by observations on what we now know to be insusceptible mosquito species. He nonetheless observed "flagellation" of Plasmodium in the bloodmeal of ...
Sir Ronald Ross
As a doctor in the Indian Medical Service, Ronald Ross proved in 1897 the long-suspected link between mosquitoes and malaria. In doing so he confirmed the hypotheses previously put forward independently by scientists Alphonse Laveran and Sir Patrick Manson. Ross was subsequently awarded the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1902.,Born in India, where his father was based as a soldier, Ross had seen ...
Ronald Ross Biography
Childhood & Early Life. Ronald Ross was born to Sir Campbell Claye Grant and Matilda Charlotte Elderton, on May 13, 1857, in Almora, India. As a child, he was brought up in Isle of Wight, England, by his uncle and aunt. He pursued his primary education from schools located in Ryde, and later, in 1869, joined a residential school in Springhill.
Sir Ronald Ross, 1857
RONALD. ROSS—1857-1932. Ronald Ross was born at Almora in the Kumaon Hills, North-West Nepal, on May 13, 1857, three days after the outbreak of the great Indian Mutiny, when his father held the rank of Captain. His forebears for three generations had been linked with India. His grandfather, Lieut.-Col. Hugh Ross, served in the Indian Army and ...
Ronald Ross and the problem of malaria
One hundred years ago this month Ronald Ross solved the malaria problem. After two years of at times dark, dark despair but determined effort, he identified the developing malaria parasite in the gut wall of the mosquito, bringing his sacred passion to a successful conclusion. At the same time, Ross opened a new chapter in the fight against ...
Sir Ronald Ross and the Transmission of Malaria
IOR/P/5185 Mar 1897 nos 141-45; Proposal to place Surgeon Major Ronald Ross on special duty to investigate the truth of Dr. Patrick Manson's theory of the transmission of the infection of malaria by means of the mosquito. The work would be carried out by someone who was 'a microscopist and bacteriologist with a bent towards original research'.
RONALD ROSS, 1857-1932 HIS LIFE AND WORK
The Lancet SPECIAL ARTICLES RONALD ROSS, 1857-1932 HIS LIFE AND WORK RONALD Ross was born in Almora, in the North- We [amp]t Provinces, at the foot of the Himalayas, in 1857, three days after the outbreak of the Indian mutiny, being the eldest of the large family of General Sir Campbell Ross by Matilda Charlotte Elderton, the daughter of a ...
Remembering Ronald Ross and 6 other great scientists who have won the
Ronald Ross, a British medical doctor who linked the disease of Malaria to mosquitoes, was born in Almora, in present-day Uttarakhand on May 13,1857. For his work on the transmission of the disease, Ross received the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1902. Ross made the path breaking medical discovery while he was working at the Indian Medical Service.
PDF Researches on malaria
RONALD Ross Researches on malaria Nobel Lecture, December, 12, 1902* Contents 1. Preliminary p. 26 2. The discovery of the parasite of malaria p. 27 3. The problem of the mode of infection p. 29 4. First researches in India; 1889-1894 p. 30 5. Return to England; 1894 p. 31 6. The theories of King, Laveran, Koch and Mansonp. 32 7.
Dr Ronald Ross Mosquito, Malaria, India and the Nobel Prize
The discovery of inextricable link between mosquito-malaria by Dr Ronald Ross in 1897 in India is said to be the greatest of all discoveries during the 19th Century! For his epoch-making discovery Dr Ross was awarded the Nobel Prize for Medicine or Physiology, 1902, besides a string of lofty laurels bestowed with him both in India and Great Britain including Knighthood.
Hyderabad's Ronald Ross: Remembered but also forgotten
Ronald Ross made his landmark discovery on August 20, 1897, in Secunderabad. ... With the 102-year-old Osmania University itself starved of funds and slipping rapidly in research in the last few ...
PDF What science has done to me Sir Ronald Ross's memoirs?
written by Manson, entitled 'Surgeon-Major Ronald Ross's Investigations on the Mosquito-Malaria Theory'.16 On 25th June, despite having only tested his theory on birds, Ross could 8 Gibson and Nye, p. 3. 9 Eli Chernin, 'Sir Ronald Ross, malaria, and the rewards of research',Medical History, 32(2), (1988), p. 120. 10 Gibson and Nye, p. 57.
Project 2025
Project 2025 encourages the president to ensure that "any research conducted with taxpayer dollars serves the national interest in a concrete way in line with conservative principles". [115] [33]: 686 For example, research in climatology should receive considerably less funding, in line with Project 2025's views on climate change. [26]
Ronald Ross
Ronald Ross's speech at the Nobel Banquet in Stockholm, December 10, 1902. Your Royal Highnesses, grefve Mörner and gentlemen, I beg to thank you for the very great honour you have done me in drinking to my health this evening; and you, Professor Mörner, for the eloquent and flattering terms in which you proposed the toast.