Mole

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

Tu Youyou spent decades in meticulous, largely anonymous laboratory research, combing through ancient Chinese medical texts and conducting thousands of experiments to isolate artemisinin, the breakthrough malaria treatment that has saved hundreds of millions of lives. She shunned publicity throughout her career, working without advanced degrees or overseas training, and was largely unknown to the public until she was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2015. Her profile is the quintessential mole: a profoundly introverted, behind-the-scenes scientific genius whose quiet, obsessive focus produced one of the greatest medical discoveries of the 20th century.