Service in 1881. Ross married Rosa Bessie Bloxam in
1889 and they had two sons and two daughters. He
began the study of malaria in 1892 after being
exposed to the sufferings of many while he lived in
India. In 1894 he began to make an experimental
investigation in India that mosquitoes were connected
with transmitting the disease. After two and a half
years of experimentation, on August 20, 1897, Ross
finally succeeded in demonstrating the life cycle of the
parasites of malaria in mosquitoes. He dubbed it
“Mosquito Day.” In 1898 he demonstrated the malar-
ial parasite (plasmodium) in the stomach of the
anopheles mosquito, and the following year, Ross
joined the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine
under the direction of Sir Alfred Jones and was sent
to West Africa to continue his investigations. There
he found the species of mosquitoes that convey the
deadly African fever.
In 1901 Ross was elected a fellow of the Royal
College of Surgeons of England and also a fellow of
the Royal Society (became vice president from 1911
to 1913). In 1902 His Majesty the King of Great
Britain appointed him a companion of the Most Hon-
orable Order of Bath. In 1911 he was elevated to
the rank of knight commander of the same order. In
Belgium, he was made an officer in the Order of
Leopold II.
In1902 the School of Tropical Medicine founded
a chair of tropical medicine in University College. The
Sir Alfred Jones’ Chair of Tropical Medicine, as it was
called, was given to Ross in 1902, which he retained
until 1912. He left Liverpool and was appointed
physician for tropical diseases at Kings College Hospi-
tal, London, a post that he held together with the
chair of tropical sanitation in Liverpool. He stayed
until 1917, when he was appointed consultant in
malariology to the War Office. He was elevated to
the rank of knight commander, St. Michael and
St. George, in 1918 and was later appointed consul-
tant in malaria to the Ministry of Pensions. In 1926
he assumed the post of director-in-chief of the Ross
Institute and Hospital of Tropical Diseases and
Hygiene. His admirers created the institute, and he
remained there until his death. He was also a presi-
dent of the Society of Tropical Medicine.
While his contributions were in the form of the
discovery of the transmission of malaria by
mosquitoes, he also found time to write poetry and
plays and to paint. His poetic works gained him
wide acclamation independent of his medical and
mathematical standing.
He received many honors in addition to receiving
the Nobel Prize in 1902 for his work in malaria, and
was given honorary membership of learned societies of
most countries of Europe and of many other conti-
nents. He received an honorary M.D. degree in Stock-
holm in 1910 at the centenary celebration of the
Caroline Institute. He was knighted in 1911.
His wife died in 1931. Ross died the following year,
after a long illness, at the Ross Institute, London, on
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of membranous interconnected folded sheets in the
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tained. It transports materials through the cell and pro-
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Culexmosquitoes. This image shows the common characteristics
of Culexmosquitoes. In the United States, West Nile virus is trans-
mitted by infected mosquitoes, primarily members of the genus
Culex. (Courtesy of Center for Disease Control)