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Jonas Salk was born on October 28,1914 in New York City. His parents were poor Russian immigrants and had immigrated to the United States seeking a better life. Jonas did very well in school. When he was only twelve, Jonas entered Townsend Harris High School for Gifted Students. He graduated when he was fifteen. He decided to become a lawyer. As his college graduation approached in 1934, Jonas decided that law no longer interested him. Instead, he decided to enter medical school and become a doctor. When he entered medical school the Great Depression was in full swing. His parents had to borrow money to pay for his first year.

During his first year, he earned many scholarships that paid for the rest of the time he was in medical school. While he was in medical school, Jonas began to get interested in working in the lab. One of his teachers, Dr. Francis Jr. taught him that a vaccine could be made out of a killed virus. This was very important because thus was the method he used to develop a polio vaccine. One day after he graduated from medical school, Jonas married Donna Lindsay, a social worker. After he graduated, Dr. Salk found a job with his former teacher Dr. Francis Jr. He helped him develop a successful influenza vaccine. After this, the National Foundation of Infantile Paralysis started funding their research to develop a polio vaccine. Polio is a virus that paralyzes a person's nervous system. During the summers of the 1930's, Epidemics swept around the U.S. It left 27,000 people dead and thousands of people paralyzed.

In 1947, Dr. Salk went to work for the University of Pittsburg because he wanted to be independent. He developed a longer lasting influenza and a polio vaccine. It was licensed by the U.S. government in 1955. His vaccine helped many people and today there are only a few cases of polio in the U.S. It also helped many soldiers in World War II. After this, Dr. Salk became a hero. In 1956, he received the first Congressional Medal for Civilian Service. In the 1968 book by the Overseas Press Club, he was named as "One of the twelve heroes of our time" along with Winston Churchill, Mahatma Gandhi, Franklin Roosevelt, Eleanor Roosevelt and eight other people. Dr. Salk visited Jonas Salk Middle School right here in Old Bridge, New Jersey, to dedicate our school in 1973. In 1977, he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Dr. Salk worked on an AIDS vaccine at the Salk Institute in La Jolla, California until he died of heart failure in 1995. He was 81 years old.