Mole

A quiet genius who worked in the dark to save millions.

Jonas Salk was the archetypal behind-the-scenes intellectual — a meticulous, introverted scientist who spent years in the laboratory pursuing the polio vaccine with obsessive focus rather than seeking fame or fortune. In a legendary act of principle, he refused to patent his vaccine, telling Edward R. Murrow it belonged to 'the people,' reflecting a deep humility completely at odds with the spotlight. He shunned the celebrity that came after 1955, retreating back into research at the Salk Institute, preferring the quiet world of ideas to the adulation of the public.