Dr. Thomas Weller, the Harvard virologist who shared the 1954 Nobel Prize in Medicine for developing techniques to grow the polio virus in the laboratory, a feat that laid the groundwork for the development of the polio vaccine and the feared virus's near-eradication from the world, died Saturday in Needham, Mass. He was 93. The techniques developed by Weller, Dr. John Enders and Dr. Frederick Robbins made it possible to grow a host of viruses in the laboratory and led to the development of many vaccines.
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He effectively lobbied some of Minnesota’s wealthiest citizens to contribute to his projects: “You were just compelled to step up and do whatever Joe wanted to do.”
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