Merlin Pryce was the former assistant with Alexander Fleming when they examined the contaminated culture plate.
Pryce’s full name was Daniel Merlin Pryce, and he had previously worked as Fleming’s research student at St Mary’s Hospital in London. Although Pryce had moved to another laboratory before Fleming’s return from holiday, he was present when Fleming resumed work and inspected the culture plates on 3 September 1928.
One plate had been contaminated by a blue-green Penicillium mould. Fleming saw that the staphylococci around the mould had failed to grow, while colonies farther away remained intact. Pryce recognized the significance of the scene and reminded Fleming that it resembled Fleming’s earlier discovery of lysozyme, an antibacterial enzyme.
Edward Abraham and Norman Heatley were important members of the later Oxford team that helped purify and develop penicillin. Stuart Craddock, meanwhile, was the research scholar working with Fleming before the discovery. Those names belong to the wider story, but Pryce was the former assistant at the plate examination.