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Frederick Banting

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Doctor

The Resume

    (November 14, 1891-February 21, 1941)
    Born in Alliston, Ontario, Canada
    Co-recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for successfully extracting insulin and using it to treat diabetes (1923)
    Knighted (1934)

Why he might be annoying:

    He originally planned to become a minister before changing his college major from divinity to medicine.
    He had an unsuccessful private practice before starting diabetes research.
    He had a long-running feud with lab director J.R.R. MacLeod, and repeatedly minimized MacLeod's role in the discovery of insulin.
    He advocating launching a biological warfare attack on Germany during World War II.

Why he might not be annoying:

    As a medic in World War I, he was awarded the Military Cross for heroism for continuing to treat the wounded for 16 hours after receiving shrapnel wounds to his arm during the Battle of Cambrai.
    His research went remarkably fast, going from experiments on dogs to successfully treating human diabetics in less than two years.
    One beneficial result of his feud with MacLeod: when the pair were declared co-recipients of the Nobel Prize, Banting split his half of the prize money with lab assistant Charles Best, while MacLeod shared his half with chemist James Collip, who had helped purify extracts of insulin.
    He, MacLeod, Best and Collip sold their patent rights for insulin to the University of Toronto for $1 to keep the costs down and to ensure that any profits from insulin would be used for medical research.
    He was appointed as liaison between the Canadian and British medical services in WWII.
    During a flight to England, his plane crashed in Newfoundland. He managed to bandage the wounds of the pilot (who survived) before dying from his own.

Credit: C. Fishel


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    In 2023, Out of 10 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2022, Out of 2 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 13 Votes: 46.15% Annoying
    In 2020, Out of 71 Votes: 42.25% Annoying
    In 2018, Out of 4 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2017, Out of 2 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2016, Out of 20 Votes: 55.00% Annoying
    In 2015, Out of 342 Votes: 48.83% Annoying
    In 2014, Out of 24 Votes: 50.0% Annoying