The Resume

(March 15, 1860-October 26, 1930)
Born in Odessa, Ukraine
Birth name was Waldemar Chavkin
Bacteriologist
Worked at the Pasteur Institute in Paris
Developed vaccines for cholera (1892) and bubonic plague (1897)

Why he might be annoying:

When he first joined the Pasteur Institute, the only position available for him was as an assistant librarian.
His plague vaccine did not provide complete protection. (Although it did reduce mortality by 50-85%.)
He unsuccessfully approached Aga Khan III with a plan to resettle European Jews in Ottoman-controlled Palestine (1898).
He was fired as director of the Plague Research Lab in Bombay and resigned from the Indian civil service after 19 villagers in Punjab died of tetanus after receiving contaminated plague vaccines that British authorities blamed on Haffkine having changed the sterilization procedure from carbolic acid to using heat (1903).

Why he might not be annoying:

As a teen, he was a member of the Jewish League for Self-Defense in Odessa and was injured protecting a Jewish home during a pogrom.
He emigrated from Russia when antisemitism kept him from receiving a professorship (1888).
He tested the safety of his vaccines on himself first.
An investigation of the tetanus deaths in Punjab by the Lister Institute of London found evidence that the vaccine could not have been contaminated at the lab, concluding that one of the vials had been contaminated on site when the injections were being performed.
He was restored to the Indian civil service and appointed director of the Biological Lab in Calcutta after a group of medical dignitaries (including Nobel Prize winner Ronald Ross) published an open letter in The Times calling the case against Haffkine 'distinctly disproven.' (1907)
Joseph Lister called him 'a savior of humanity.'

Credit: C. Fishel

Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

• 19th Century Scientists
• 20th Century Scientists
• C. Fishel's Profiles [Series 92]
• I am Ukrainian
• I Died in 1930 (Ranked: 70)
• I Earned a Doctorate
• Librarians
• Look at Me, I'm Postage
• Profiles 57251-57500 (Ranked: 57382)
• Scientists

Year In Review:

In 2023, Out of 33 Votes: 48.48% Annoying