Selman A. Waksman
E841968
Selman A. Waksman was a pioneering microbiologist and biochemist best known for discovering the antibiotic streptomycin and laying the foundations of modern antibiotic therapy.
All labels observed (2)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Selman A. Waksman canonical | 1 |
| Selman Abraham Waksman | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T10105968 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Selman A. Waksman Context triple: [Selman A. Waksman Award in Microbiology, namedAfter, Selman A. Waksman]
-
A.
Joshua Lederberg
Joshua Lederberg was an American molecular biologist and geneticist renowned for his pioneering work in bacterial genetics, which earned him a share of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
-
B.
Oswald Avery
Oswald Avery was a Canadian-American physician and molecular biologist best known for demonstrating that DNA is the material responsible for heredity.
-
C.
Alexander R. Todd
Alexander R. Todd was a Scottish biochemist and Nobel laureate renowned for his pioneering work on the chemistry of nucleotides and nucleic acids.
-
D.
George H. Hitchings
George H. Hitchings was an American biochemist and pharmacologist who pioneered the development of important chemotherapy and antiviral drugs, work for which he shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
-
E.
Alexander Fleming
Alexander Fleming was a Scottish bacteriologist best known for discovering the antibiotic substance penicillin in 1928, a breakthrough that revolutionized modern medicine.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Selman A. Waksman Target entity description: Selman A. Waksman was a pioneering microbiologist and biochemist best known for discovering the antibiotic streptomycin and laying the foundations of modern antibiotic therapy.
-
A.
Joshua Lederberg
Joshua Lederberg was an American molecular biologist and geneticist renowned for his pioneering work in bacterial genetics, which earned him a share of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
-
B.
Oswald Avery
Oswald Avery was a Canadian-American physician and molecular biologist best known for demonstrating that DNA is the material responsible for heredity.
-
C.
Alexander R. Todd
Alexander R. Todd was a Scottish biochemist and Nobel laureate renowned for his pioneering work on the chemistry of nucleotides and nucleic acids.
-
D.
George H. Hitchings
George H. Hitchings was an American biochemist and pharmacologist who pioneered the development of important chemotherapy and antiviral drugs, work for which he shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
-
E.
Alexander Fleming
Alexander Fleming was a Scottish bacteriologist best known for discovering the antibiotic substance penicillin in 1928, a breakthrough that revolutionized modern medicine.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (48)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
Nobel laureate in Physiology or Medicine
ⓘ
biochemist ⓘ human ⓘ microbiologist ⓘ |
| academicDegree | PhD in biochemistry ⓘ |
| awardReceived |
Elliott Cresson Medal
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
John Scott Medal NERFINISHED ⓘ Lasker Award NERFINISHED ⓘ Medal for Merit NERFINISHED ⓘ Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine ⓘ Star of the Order of the White Lion NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| citizenship | United States of America ⓘ |
| countryOfBirth | Russian Empire ⓘ |
| countryOfDeath | United States of America ⓘ |
| dateOfBirth | 1888-07-22 ⓘ |
| dateOfDeath | 1973-08-16 ⓘ |
| doctoralStudent | Albert Schatz NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| educatedAt |
Rutgers University
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
University of California, Berkeley ⓘ |
| employer | Rutgers University NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| familyName | Waksman NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| fieldOfWork |
antibiotics
ⓘ
biochemistry ⓘ microbiology ⓘ soil microbiology ⓘ |
| founded | Waksman Institute of Microbiology NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| givenName | Selman NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| influenced | development of tuberculosis chemotherapy ⓘ |
| knownFor |
coining the term antibiotic
ⓘ
development of modern antibiotic therapy ⓘ discovery of streptomycin ⓘ research on actinomycetes ⓘ |
| memberOf |
American Academy of Arts and Sciences
ⓘ
National Academy of Sciences ⓘ |
| movedTo | United States of America ⓘ |
| movement | applied microbiology ⓘ |
| nativeLanguage | Yiddish ⓘ |
| NobelPrizeFor | discovery of streptomycin, the first antibiotic effective against tuberculosis ⓘ |
| NobelPrizeYear | 1952 ⓘ |
| notableWork |
isolation of streptomycin from Streptomyces griseus
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
research on actinomycin ⓘ research on neomycin ⓘ |
| placeOfBirth | Nova Pryluka NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| placeOfDeath | Woods Hole, Massachusetts, United States NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| religion | Judaism ⓘ |
| sexOrGender | male ⓘ |
| workInstitution | Waksman Institute of Microbiology NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| workLocation | New Brunswick, New Jersey, United States NERFINISHED ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Selman A. Waksman Description of subject: Selman A. Waksman was a pioneering microbiologist and biochemist best known for discovering the antibiotic streptomycin and laying the foundations of modern antibiotic therapy.
Referenced by (2)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
this entity surface form:
Selman Abraham Waksman