Stanley Falkow

Falkow was born into a Yiddish-speaking household in Albany, New York. His father was a shoe salesman and had immigrated from Soviet Kyiv, Ukraine.Sandeep Ravindran. [https://alumni.stanford.edu/get/page/magazine/article/?article_id=43987 Curious About Everything] Stanford Alumni Magazine, September/October 2011, retrieved June 22 2018

His mother came from a family of Jewish immigrants from Poland. She "rented several of their bedrooms and later opened a corset shop". Falkow's family was working-class to poor as he described in his memoir. He was therefore a first-generation Jewish American. Falkow worked at a toy shop in order to collect enough money to buy a model microscope, as well as admitted to stealing textbooks, one a nurse's book on infectious diseases, in order to explore microbiology as a career path despite his family's financial situation.

Falkow attributed his early interest in microbiology to reading Microbe Hunters in 1943, when he was 11 years old, which he found at the public library after the family had moved to Newport, Rhode Island. The book is a dramatization of microbiological research written by American microbiologist Paul de Kruif.{{Cite web|url=https://www.the-scientist.com/?articles.view/articleNo/54515/title/Stanley-Falkow--Father-of-Molecular-Microbial-Pathogenesis--Dies/|title=Stanley Falkow, Father of Molecular Microbial Pathogenesis, Dies|website=The Scientist|access-date=May 10, 2018}}

Because of poor grades until his senior year of high school, an adviser suggested military rather than college. Falkow described himself as an average student, and below average at mathematics, which he later rectified by working through workbooks of high school and college level mathematics later in his career, after earning his Ph.D., in order to analyze and design experiments. In his memoir, Falkow gives credit to his teachers and acknowledges the role that the systemic oppression of women in America in the 1940s–1950s played in his life, stating "I now understand that I was the beneficiary of the repression of women by our society. The best and brightest women in many communities were relegated to the one intellectual role deemed suitable for them. They became teachers and many poured their love of language, science, music and art into students like me."

Falkow enrolled in biology at the University of Maine, because of their microbiology department. During the summers he worked in pathology at the hospital in Newport, staining slides and assisting in autopsies. He graduated in 1955.

Before he started graduate school at University of Michigan he developed extreme anxiety. He was later diagnosed with agoraphobia. He avoided movie theaters and crowded places between 1955 and 1983 and dropped out of his first attempt at graduate school because of recurring panic attacks. He returned to Rhode Island to live with his parents and work at the Newport Hospital as a technician, focusing on bacteriology and processing and examining patient samples. He re-enrolled in graduate school at Brown University and graduated with a PhD in 1961.

He finished his work for his Ph.D. thesis at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research (WRAIR) in the Department of Bacterial Immunology.{{Cite book|last=Falkow|first=Stanley|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1225499908|title=And what's beyond that? : a memoir by the father of microbial pathogenesis|date=2020|isbn=979-8-6873-4014-4|location=[United States]|oclc=1225499908}} While at Walter Reed, he worked with African-American microbiologist Othello Washington. Washington was older and more experienced than Falkow, but was assigned to be Stan's technician. Upon meeting, Falkow and Washington decided it would be more appropriate and better for both men to work together as a team. The two men worked together on isolating mobile genetic elements and the transfer of genes between E. coli and Salmonella and published a paper together about Proteus species.{{Cite journal|journal=Journal of Bacteriology|doi=10.1128/jb.83.6.1318-1321.1962|title=Deoxyribonucleic Acid Base Composition of Proteus and Providence Organisms|year=1962|last1=Falkow|first1=Stanley|last2=Ryman|first2=I. R.|last3=Washington|first3=O.|volume=83|issue=6|pages=1318–1321|pmid=13891463|pmc=279453}} Falkow also worked with Shigella species and contracted dysentery, which lead to hospitalization, after being exposed to infected monkey feces flung at his face by an infected monkey. Multiple times through his training and early career more senior scientists, some Nobel prize winners, recommended that Falkow focus more on mechanisms of gene expression and less on pathogens because "nobody cares about typhoid". Falkow remained interested in pathogens despite many warnings from his peers and supervisors that infectious diseases were not interesting and were becoming less frequent in wealthy countries and were therefore a diminishing field of study.

His early work in the 1960s focused on the genetic mechanisms, which enable bacteria to become resistant to antibiotics. He showed that organisms, such as Shigella, can possess DNA fragments called plasmids which exist apart from the bacterial chromosome, and that they carry specialized information for survival. Under selective pressure from antibiotics, one species of bacteria can pass its plasmids to another directly without mating, thereby preserving its own specialized survival genes.

In 1966, he joined Georgetown University School of Medicine as a professor of microbiology. He later moved to Seattle to join the faculty of the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at the University of Washington School of Medicine. Here he described how meningitis and gonorrhea organisms acquire plasmids to become resistant to penicillin and other antibiotics.

In the 1970s, Falkow shifted his focus to the infection process. During this period, he showed that a life-threatening diarrhea prevalent in many developing countries is caused by a sub-type of E. coli. He also co-authored (with Royston C. Clowes, Stanley N. Cohen, Roy Curtiss III, Naomi Datta and Richard Novick) a proposal for uniform nomenclature for bacterial plasmids.Richard P. Novick et al., "Uniform Nomenclature for Bacterial Plasmids: A Proposal", Bacteriol. Rev., March 1976, pp. 168–189.

In 1981, he was named chairman of the Department of Medical Microbiology at Stanford University School of Medicine, a position he held until 1985. While at Stanford, Falkow encouraged Esther Lederberg to continue directing the Stanford Plasmid Reference Center, an internationally used registry for plasmids, transposons and insertion sequences.See http://www.esthermlederberg.com/EImages/Archive/ArchiveIndex.html; click "Special Topics", "Plasmid Reference Center Funding Issues", then "Falkow")

Falkow was married to Rhoda Ostroff in January, 1958 with whom he had two daughters. They divorced in 1983.Harrison Smith [https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/stanley-falkow-microbiologist-who-studied-bacteria-and-the-diseases-they-cause-dies-at-84/2018/05/12/47b81a18-55ed-11e8-abd8-265bd07a9859_story.html Stanley Falkow, microbiologist who studied bacteria and the diseases they cause, dies at 84] Washington Post, 12 May 2018, retrieved 21 June 2018 In December, 1983, he married Lucy S. Tompkins.

Falkow and Tompkins met while he was a professor at Georgetown University, and she was a medical student who sought Falkow out to work in his lab. At first, Falkow denied the opportunity to Tompkins, claiming that he would not take female graduate students because he was not comfortable having a female student, which was common in the scientific field in the 1960s. Tompkins rebutted his misogyny firmly, and explicitly pointed out that he was discriminating against her based on her gender. Her argument forced Stan to reconsider his bias and he then allowed her to enter his laboratory as a trainee. For the remainder of his career Falkow continued to hire women trainees, and by the end of his career most of his trainees were female. Falkow later became an advocate and ally of gender equality in science and helped encourage many women to pursue scientific careers.

Falkow had on-going severe anxiety throughout his career. Due to his anxiety early in his career he avoided conferences, airplanes, and giving presentations in general due to the fact that he would shake and sweat noticeably during them. Falkow described his struggle with his mental health as an "uneasy truce" with his "demons" later on in his career as he learned various coping mechanisms. Because of his anxiety during public speaking, he often employed humor in his teaching and presentations to help cope with the tension of a silent audience, which also lead to most of the audience members finding his talks memorable and enjoyable. Falkow kept his condition a secret from his colleagues during his early career, only privately revealing to Arthur Saz, the chair of microbiology at Georgetown University School of Medicine, that he received and benefited from psychoanalysis treatment. Health insurance for mental health treatment was much better for military employees than academics at the time, and a major reason Falkow continued to work at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research for as long as he did early in his career, but Falkow agreed to a job at Georgetown University because of this disclosure, upon which the chair privately organized Falkow's healthcare benefits to cover his psychoanalysis treatments.

In 2004 Falkow was diagnosed with myelodysplastic syndrome and given a prognosis of two years. He died on May 5, 2018, at the age of 84 at his home in Portola Valley, California, of myelodysplastic syndrome.{{cite web |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/10/obituaries/stanley-falkow-who-saw-how-bacteria-cause-disease-dies-at-84.html |title=Stanley Falkow, Who Saw How Bacteria Cause Disease, Dies at 84 |first=Gina |last=Kolata |date=May 10, 2018 |work=The New York Times |access-date=May 11, 2018 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20180511154728/https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/10/obituaries/stanley-falkow-who-saw-how-bacteria-cause-disease-dies-at-84.html |archive-date=May 11, 2018 |url-status=dead |df=mdy-all }} His death was announced and lifetime achievements highlighted in obituaries in The New York Times,{{Cite news|last=Kolata|first=Gina|date=2018-05-10|title=Stanley Falkow, Who Saw How Bacteria Cause Disease, Dies at 84|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/10/obituaries/stanley-falkow-who-saw-how-bacteria-cause-disease-dies-at-84.html|access-date=2021-10-08|issn=0362-4331}} Washington Post,{{Cite news|title=Stanley Falkow, microbiologist who studied bacteria and the diseases they cause, dies at 84|language=en-US|newspaper=Washington Post|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/stanley-falkow-microbiologist-who-studied-bacteria-and-the-diseases-they-cause-dies-at-84/2018/05/12/47b81a18-55ed-11e8-abd8-265bd07a9859_story.html|access-date=2021-10-08|issn=0190-8286}} Nature,{{Cite journal|last=Amieva|first=Manuel R.|date=2018-06-07|title=Stanley Falkow (1934-2018)|journal=Nature|language=en|volume=558|issue=7709|pages=190|doi=10.1038/d41586-018-05377-6|bibcode=2018Natur.558..190A|s2cid=46958780|doi-access=free}} Science,{{Cite journal|last1=Monack|first1=Denise|last2=Strauss|first2=Evelyn|date=2018-06-08|title=Stanley Falkow (1934–2018)|url=https://www.science.org/doi/full/10.1126/science.aau2284|journal=Science|volume=360|issue=6393|pages=1077|doi=10.1126/science.aau2284|bibcode=2018Sci...360.1077M|s2cid=46954621|url-access=subscription}} in a press release from the Americain Society of Microbiology{{Cite web|title=In Memoriam: Falkow, Stanley|url=https://asm.org/Obituaries/In-Memoriam-Stanley-Falkow|access-date=2021-10-08|website=ASM.org|language=en}} and in various international news sources.

Falkow has been referred to as the "father of molecular microbial pathogenesis", the study of how infectious microbes and host cells interact to cause disease at the molecular level.The Double Helix [http://www.nfid.org/publications/helix_archive/dec98/helix1.html NFID to Honor Dr. Falkow] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070928093202/http://www.nfid.org/publications/helix_archive/dec98/helix1.html |date=September 28, 2007 }} Retrieved on July 4, 2007

Falkow adopted the perspective of viewing infection as a process that is ultimately dependent on both the infecting agent and the host. He discovered that infectious microbes employ genes that are activated only inside host cells. His work carries clinical applications, such as a new vaccine for whooping cough.{{citation needed|date=June 2018}} From enteric pathogens to sexually transmitted diseases to respiratory infections, his influence has left virtually no field untouched.{{Cite web|title=Stanley Falkow {{!}} Sir William Dunn School of Pathology|url=https://www.path.ox.ac.uk/content/stanley-falkow|access-date=2021-10-14|website=www.path.ox.ac.uk}}

Falkow and his first graduate student, Richard P. Silver, discovered that episomes (plasmids) are nicked into linear pieces of DNA and transported as linear DNA between two bacterial cells during conjugation.{{Cite journal|last1=Silver|first1=Richard P.|last2=Falkow|first2=Stanley|date=1970-10-01|title=Specific Labeling and Physical Characterization of R-Factor Deoxyribonucleic Acid in Escherichia coli|journal=Journal of Bacteriology|volume=104|issue=1|pages=331–339|doi=10.1128/jb.104.1.331-339.1970|pmid=4919748|pmc=248218}} He then collaborated with Mexican scientists Emma Galindo and Jorge Olarte to investigate new forms of penicillin resistance in Shigella isolates from pediatric patients in Mexico City, which lead to the discovery of new forms of "R factors" - genes responsible for antimicrobial resistance.{{Cite journal|last1=Evans|first1=J.|last2=Galindo|first2=E.|last3=Olarte|first3=J.|last4=Falkow|first4=S.|date=October 1968|title=Beta-lactamase of R factors|journal=Journal of Bacteriology|volume=96|issue=4|pages=1441–1442|doi=10.1128/jb.96.4.1441-1442.1968|issn=0021-9193|pmid=4971890|pmc=252489}} Falkow and trainee Joan Skerman Knapp identified a virulence factor on plasmids of E. coli found in human feces, demonstrating for the first time that the ability to cause disease may be transferable between bacteria.{{Cite journal|last1=Skerman|first1=F. J.|last2=Formal|first2=S. B.|last3=Falkow|first3=Stanley|date=1972-04-01|title=Plasmid-Associated Enterotoxin Production in a Strain of Escherichia coli Isolated from Humans|journal=Infection and Immunity|volume=5|issue=4|pages=622–624|doi=10.1128/iai.5.4.622-624.1972|pmid=4564682|pmc=422413}}

Falkow was present at the famous Waikiki beach meeting in 1972 between Herb Boyer (who provided the restriction enzyme EcoRI) and Stanley Cohen (who provided the plasmid) that led to a plan to develop recombinant DNA technology. This led to the first cloning of a bacterial virulence factor, the heat stable toxin of E. coli, in a seminal 1976 paper with Magdalene Yh So, which heralded the application of molecular genetics to understanding gene transfer, and ultimately led to the creation of the field of synthetic biology.

Falkow and his trainees developed many methods that moved biological research forward such as: a method for screening patient samples for enteric pathogens,{{Cite journal|last=Falkow|first=Stanley|date=1957-07-01|title=A Screening Method for Enteric Organisms, using a Ferric Chloride Test|url=https://doi.org/10.1093/ajcp/28.1_ts.99|journal=American Journal of Clinical Pathology|volume=28|issue=1_ts|pages=99–102|doi=10.1093/ajcp/28.1_ts.99|pmid=13458131|issn=0002-9173|url-access=subscription}} the identification of Salmonella and Shigella in patient samples based on lysine metabolism,{{Cite journal|last=Falkow|first=S.|date=May 1958|title=Activity of lysine decarboxylase as an aid in the identification of Salmonellae and Shigellae|url=https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/13556625/|journal=Technical Bulletin of the Registry of Medical Technologists. American Society of Clinical Pathologists. Registry of Medical Technologists|volume=28|issue=5|pages=106–108|issn=0097-0654|pmid=13556625}} the application of nucleic acid hybridization to distinguish different bacterial species,{{Cite journal|last1=Falkow|first1=Stanley|last2=Rownd|first2=R.|last3=Baron|first3=L. S.|title=Genetic Homology Between Escherichia Coli K-12 and Salmonella|date=December 1962|journal=Journal of Bacteriology|volume=84|issue=6|pages=1303–1312|doi=10.1128/jb.84.6.1303-1312.1962|issn=0021-9193|pmid=16561983|pmc=278063}} the application of agarose gels to isolate plasmids of various sizes,{{Cite journal|last1=Meyers|first1=J A|last2=Sanchez|first2=D|last3=Elwell|first3=L P|last4=Falkow|first4=S|date=September 1976|title=Simple agarose gel electrophoretic method for the identification and characterization of plasmid deoxyribonucleic acid.|journal=Journal of Bacteriology|volume=127|issue=3|pages=1529–1537|doi=10.1128/jb.127.3.1529-1537.1976|issn=0021-9193|pmid=821935|pmc=232949}} isolation and creation of different plasmid backbones now used as cloning vectors,{{Cite journal|last1=So|first1=M.|last2=Gill|first2=R.|last3=Falkow|first3=S.|date=1975-12-30|title=The generation of a ColE1-Apr cloning vehicle which allows detection of inserted DNA|url=https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/1045010/|journal=Molecular & General Genetics |volume=142|issue=3|pages=239–249|doi=10.1007/BF00425649|issn=0026-8925|pmid=1045010|s2cid=38221334}} a method for identifying unculturable pathogens based on isolated 16S ribosomal RNA sequence,{{Cite journal|last1=Relman|first1=D. A.|last2=Loutit|first2=J. S.|last3=Schmidt|first3=T. M.|last4=Falkow|first4=S.|last5=Tompkins|first5=L. S.|date=1990-12-06|title=The agent of bacillary angiomatosis. An approach to the identification of uncultured pathogens|journal=The New England Journal of Medicine|volume=323|issue=23|pages=1573–1580|doi=10.1056/NEJM199012063232301|issn=0028-4793|pmid=2233945|doi-access=free}} an optimized version of GFP for flow cytometry applications,{{Cite journal|last1=Cormack|first1=B. P.|last2=Valdivia|first2=R. H.|last3=Falkow|first3=S.|date=1996|title=FACS-optimized mutants of the green fluorescent protein (GFP)|journal=Gene|volume=173|issue=1 Spec No|pages=33–38|doi=10.1016/0378-1119(95)00685-0|issn=0378-1119|pmid=8707053|doi-access=free}} and a fluorescence-based method for the detection of genes expressed by pathogens inside of host cells,{{Cite journal|last1=Valdivia|first1=R. H.|last2=Falkow|first2=S.|date=1997-09-26|title=Fluorescence-based isolation of bacterial genes expressed within host cells|url=https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/9302299/|journal=Science|volume=277|issue=5334|pages=2007–2011|doi=10.1126/science.277.5334.2007|issn=0036-8075|pmid=9302299}} among many other techniques.

After studying the DNA content of many different pathogenic microbes, Falkow became one of the first scientists to suggest bacterial taxonomy should be based on DNA composition rather than phenotypic observations.{{Cite journal|last1=Marmur|first1=J|last2=Falkow|first2=S|last3=Mandel|first3=M|date=October 1963|title=New Approaches to Bacterial Taxonomy|url=http://www.annualreviews.org/doi/10.1146/annurev.mi.17.100163.001553|journal=Annual Review of Microbiology|language=en|volume=17|issue=1|pages=329–372|doi=10.1146/annurev.mi.17.100163.001553|pmid=14147455|issn=0066-4227|url-access=subscription}}{{Cite journal|last=Falkow|first=Stanley|date=1965-11-01|title=Nucleic acids, genetic exchange and bacterial speciation|url=https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0002-9343%2865%2990095-1|journal=The American Journal of Medicine|series=Symposium on Antibiotics|language=en|volume=39|issue=5|pages=753–765|doi=10.1016/0002-9343(65)90095-1|pmid=5319389|issn=0002-9343|url-access=subscription}}

Falkow and others created the universal nomenclature scheme for plasmids still in use today.

Falkow established ‘Molecular Koch’s postulates’ for defining virulence determinants, which continues to influence thinking and experimental design in infectious disease research.

Falkow valued and enjoyed teaching as a fundamental part of scientific training and believed that all scientists have a duty to teach and train the next generation. In all of his years of employment at academic institutions, he taught students in some capacity between medical, graduate, undergraduate courses and invited lectures for courses whenever he was able to. In 2010, he recorded lectures on microbial pathogenesis for iBiology, and those videos are still publicly available on the [https://www.ibiology.org/microbiology/host-pathogen-interactions-human-disease/ iBiology website] and on YouTube.{{Cite web|title=Host-Pathogen Interactions and Human Disease • iBiology|url=https://www.ibiology.org/microbiology/host-pathogen-interactions-human-disease/|access-date=2021-10-08|website=iBiology|language=en-US}} When Falkow became an emeritus Professor at Stanford University, he still taught students. Indeed, he co-taught with Lucy Tompkins a class open to undergraduate and graduate students on the history of Infectious Disease.{{Cite journal|last1=Monack|first1=Denise M|last2=Brodsky|first2=Igor E|date=2020-04-01|title=Editorial overview: The fortunate students, a tribute to the fortunate professor|url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1369527420300229|journal=Current Opinion in Microbiology|series=Stanley Falkow Alumni|language=en|volume=54|pages=iii–vi|doi=10.1016/j.mib.2020.02.001|pmid=32171689|s2cid=212728684|issn=1369-5274|url-access=subscription}}

Falkow organized the first international symposium of invited speakers on antimicrobial resistance.{{Cite journal|last=Falkow|first=Stanley|date=October 2008|title=The Fortunate Professor|url=http://www.annualreviews.org/doi/10.1146/annurev.micro.62.081307.162931|journal=Annual Review of Microbiology|language=en|volume=62|issue=1|pages=1–18|doi=10.1146/annurev.micro.62.081307.162931|pmid=18345978|s2cid=45328833 |issn=0066-4227|url-access=subscription}}

Falkow and his student Vickers Herschfield investigated water sources in the D.C. area to find examples of plasmids containing antimicrobial resistance genes. Unexpectedly, they found that the Potomac River and Rock Creek, considered "clean" water sources used for recreation at the time, were full of fecal waste and alerted many government offices about their findings, which were at first largely ignored. In the summer of 1971, Falkow held a press conference warning D.C. citizens not to let their children play in the Potomac River, stating "one cup of Potomac River water is equivalent to a half gram of human feces".{{Cite book|last1=Selden|first1=Maury|url=https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=q_Jkkb3yGREC&rdid=book-q_Jkkb3yGREC&rdot=1|title=Studies in Environment|last2=Llewellyn|first2=Lynn G.|date=1973|publisher=U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Research and Development|language=en}}

Falkow served on the first NIH Recombinant DNA committee to recommend policy guidelines for the use of recombinant DNA to the United States of America Congress. Many of Falkow's publications are referenced in the Recombinant DNA Regulation Act of 1977.{{Cite book|url=https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=tVoJAAAAIAAJ&rdid=book-tVoJAAAAIAAJ&rdot=1|title=Recombinant DNA Regulation Act, 1977|date=1977|publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office|language=en}}

Falkow worked with the FDA of the United States throughout his career to advocate for the decrease of antimicrobial agents used in livestock feed.{{Cite journal|last=Guest|first=Gerald B.|date=1976|title=Status of the FDA's Program on the Use of Antibiotics in Animal Feeds|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/26657829|journal=Food, Drug, Cosmetic Law Journal|volume=31|issue=1|pages=54–58|jstor=26657829|issn=0015-6361}}{{Cite web|title=Inside an Early Attempt to Restrict Antibiotic Use on Farms|url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/inside-an-early-attempt-to-restrict-antibiotic-use-on-farms/|access-date=2021-10-14|website=FRONTLINE|language=en-US}}

File:StanAward.jpg

Falkow was elected President of the American Society for Microbiology from July 1997 through June 1998. He was elected to the Institute of Medicine in 1997 and received the Maxwell Finland Award from the National Foundation of Infectious Diseases in 1999. He also received in 1999 an Honorary Doctor of Science, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, and the University of Maine Alumni Career Award. He has received honorary doctorates in Europe and the US. He received numerous awards for his achievements in science, including the Bristol-Myers Squibb Award for Distinguished Achievement in Infectious Disease Research,Bristol-Myers Squibb [https://www.bms.com/about-us.html Awards for Distinguished Achievement] Retrieved on July 16, 2007 the Altemeier Medal from the Surgical Infectious Diseases Society of America, the Howard Taylor Ricketts Award Lecture at the University of Chicago, and the Paul Ehrlich and Ludwig Darmstaedter Prize. In 2003, he received the Abbott Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Society for Microbiology and the Selman A. Waksman Award in Microbiology from the National Academy of Sciences.{{cite web|title=Selman A. Waksman Award in Microbiology|url=http://www.nasonline.org/site/PageServer?pagename=AWARDS_chemical_sciences|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101229180055/http://www.nasonline.org/site/PageServer?pagename=AWARDS_chemical_sciences|archive-date=December 29, 2010|access-date=February 15, 2011|publisher=National Academy of Sciences}}

He received the Robert Koch Award in 2000.ISI Highly Cited [http://hcr3.isiknowledge.com/author.cgi?id=262&cb=696 Falkow, Stanley] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070929091501/http://hcr3.isiknowledge.com/author.cgi?id=262&cb=696|date=September 29, 2007}} Retrieved on July 12, 2007

Falkow was an elected member of the Institute of Medicine, the National Academy of Sciences, and the National Academy of Arts and Sciences, an elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He was also elected into the UK's Royal Society as a Foreign Member.{{Cite journal |last1=Ramakrishnan |first1=Lalita |last2=Cormack |first2=Brendan P. |date=2024 |title=Stanley Falkow. 24 January 1934—5 May 2018 |url=https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsbm.2023.0045 |journal=Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society |volume=76|pages=169–199 |doi=10.1098/rsbm.2023.0045 |doi-access=free }}

In September 2008, Falkow was awarded the Lasker Award for medical research.{{cite news|work=New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/14/health/14lasker.html|title=5 Pioneering Scientists Win Lasker Medical Prizes|date=September 13, 2008|first=Lawrence K.|last=Altman}}

In May, 2016, Falkow was awarded by Barack Obama the National Medal of Science for his monumental contributions toward understanding how microbes cause disease and resist the effects of antibiotics, and for his inspiring mentorship that created the field of molecular microbial pathogenesis. {{Cite web|url=https://nationalmedals.org/laureate/stanley-falkow/|title=Stanley Falkow}}

Stanley Falkow is known for training many experts in the field of molecular microbiology who then became prominent professors and scientists all over the world, including;

• Manuel Amieva{{Cite web|last=Zonana|first=Kathy|date=2016-06-16|title=On mentorship, and how to pay it forward|url=https://scopeblog.stanford.edu/2016/06/16/on-mentorship-and-how-to-pay-it-forward/|access-date=2021-10-08|website=Scope|language=en-US}} - Professor of Pediatrics (Infectious Disease), Stanford University School of Medicine
• Igor Brodsky - Professor of Pathobiology, University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine
• Carleen Collins{{Cite web|title=In Memoriam of Carleen Collins (1955-2008) {{!}} UW Microbiology|url=https://microbiology.washington.edu/about/memoriam-carleen-collins-1955-2008|access-date=2021-10-13|website=microbiology.washington.edu|archive-date=October 27, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211027181103/https://microbiology.washington.edu/about/memoriam-carleen-collins-1955-2008|url-status=dead}} - Professor of Microbiology, University of Washington
• Gordon Dougan - Professor, Department of Medicine, University of Cambridge
• Brett Finlay - Professor of Microbiology and Immunology, University of British Columbia
• Karen Guillemin{{Cite web|date=2020-11-30|title=Biologist Karen Guillemin named as a fellow in the AAAS|url=https://around.uoregon.edu/content/biologist-karen-guillemin-named-fellow-aaas|access-date=2021-10-08|website=Around the O|language=en}} - Professor of Biology, University of Oregon
• Carlton Gyles (sabbatical){{Cite journal|last1=Gyles|first1=Carlton|last2=So|first2=Magdalene|last3=Falkow|first3=Stanley|date=1974-07-01|title=The Enterotoxin Plasmids of Escherichia Coli|url=https://doi.org/10.1093/infdis/130.1.40|journal=The Journal of Infectious Diseases|volume=130|issue=1|pages=40–49|doi=10.1093/infdis/130.1.40|pmid=4601180|issn=0022-1899|url-access=subscription}} - Professor of Veterinary Pathobiology, University of Guelph
• Fred Heffron - Professor of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology, Oregon Health and Science University
• Joan Skerman Knapp - Scientist, Venereal Disease Control Division, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
• Michael Koomey - Professor of Genetics and Evolutionary Biology, University of Oslo
• Donald J. LeBlanc{{Citation|last1=LeBlanc|first1=Donald J.|title=Molecular Nature, Conjugal Transfer, and Replication of Extrachromosomal Elements, 1961 to 1973|date=1994|url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1128/9781555818340.ch1|work=Molecular Genetics of Bacterial Pathogenesis|pages=3–16|publisher=John Wiley & Sons, Ltd|language=en|doi=10.1128/9781555818340.ch1|isbn=978-1-68367-274-6|access-date=2021-10-12|last2=Silver|first2=Richard P.|url-access=subscription}} - Professor of Microbiology, University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio
• Ralph Isberg - Professor of Molecular Biology and Microbiology, Tufts University School of Medicine
• Leonard Mayer - Senior Scientific Advisor, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
• Denise Monack{{Cite journal|last1=Monack|first1=Denise|last2=Strauss|first2=Evelyn|date=2018-06-08|title=Stanley Falkow (1934–2018)|url=https://www.science.org/doi/full/10.1126/science.aau2284|journal=Science|volume=360|issue=6393|pages=1077|doi=10.1126/science.aau2284|bibcode=2018Sci...360.1077M|s2cid=46954621|url-access=subscription}} - Professor of Microbiology and Immunology, Stanford University School of Medicine
• Stephen L. Moseley - Professor of Microbiology, University of Washington at Seattle
• Peter Piot{{Cite web|date=October 15, 2020|first=Riccardo|last=Vecchio|title=Virus hunter Peter Piot fights personal battle against COVID-19|url=http://stanmed.stanford.edu/2020issue2/peter-piot-coronavirus-battle.html|access-date=2021-10-13|website=Stanford Medicine }} - Professor of Global Health, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
• Daniel Portnoy - Professor of Molecular and Cell Biology & Plant and Microbial Biology, University of California at Berkeley
• Lalita Ramakrishnan - Professor, Department of Medicine, University of Cambridge
• David Relman - Professor of Microbiology and Immunology, Stanford University School of Medicine
• Richard P. Silver - Professor of Microbiology and Immunology, University of Rochester Medical School
• Magdalene Yh So - Director of the Microbial Pathogenesis Program, University of Arizona College of Medicine
• Lucy S. Tompkins - Professor of Microbiology and Immunology, Stanford University School of Medicine
• Raphael Valdivia - Professor of Integrative Immunobiology, Duke University School of Medicine
• Alison Weiss - Professor of Molecular Genetics, Biochemistry & Microbiology, University of Cincinnati College of Medicine
• Rod Welch - Professor of Medical Microbiology & Immunology, University of Wisconsin at Madison

{{Reflist|2}}

• [http://www.anapsid.org/falkow.html Who Speaks for the Microbes? – article by Falkow]
• [https://www.ibiology.org/microbiology/host-pathogen-interactions-human-disease/ Falkow's iBiology recorded teaching "Host-Pathogen Interaction and Human Disease"]

{{Presidents of the American Society for Microbiology|state=collapsed}}

{{FRS 2007}}

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Category:1934 births

Category:2018 deaths

Category:Deaths from myelodysplastic syndrome

Category:American microbiologists

Category:Jewish biologists

Category:Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences

Category:Foreign members of the Royal Society

Category:Members of the European Molecular Biology Organization

Category:University of Maine alumni

Category:Jewish American scientists

Category:Brown University alumni

Category:21st-century American Jews

Category:Scientists from Albany, New York

Category:Members of the National Academy of Medicine