In what year did Fleming gain a BSc with a gold medal in bacteriology? The answer is 1908.
After qualifying in medicine at St Mary’s Hospital Medical School in 1906, Alexander Fleming continued in the school’s research environment. He worked under Sir Almroth Wright, a leading figure in vaccine therapy and immunology, and developed his career as a bacteriologist.
Fleming’s 1908 BSc was awarded with a gold medal in bacteriology. The degree helped establish his academic standing before he became a lecturer at St Mary’s, a position he held until 1914. This is distinct from his 1906 MBBS qualification, a date sometimes confused with the later science degree.
His early bacteriology work preceded his First World War service and his later discoveries of lysozyme and penicillin. Fleming’s penicillin observation came in 1928, two decades after the BSc milestone.