Selman Abraham Waksman 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 several other antibiotics. For his work he won the 1952 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1952, announced October 23, 1952. Selman A. Waksman, “for his discovery of streptomycin, the first antibiotic effective against tuberculosis”. Selman A. Waksman: born 1888, Priluka, Russian Empire (now Nova Pryluka, Ukraine). Wiki link Data: the Nobel Foundation (CC0).