Jonas Salk's Legacy

Jonas was a big thinker and wanted a place where big thinking could be done. He was a dreamer and he knew that you have to dream to create something new. The centenary of my father's birth is an opportunity not only to look back at what was done in Polio and the Salk Institute, but to look forward what can be built from here. How can this legacy be continued? There was a relatively young boy with him, I would say he was 12 or 13 I suspect. This is Dr. Jonas Salk. He cured Polio and the little boy looked at him and said, what is Polio? And Jonas was beaming because he felt he has finally achieved it because this kid doesn't even know the disease Polio. I think Jonas realized that his discovery wasn't only important in terms of public health, but that it was important to remove a sense of fear from people and that might have been the biggest effect. He was perfectly conscious of the significance of this vaccine and indeed Jonas never obtained the return monies from the sale of the vaccine. One has to admire his single-mindedness in developing a Polio vaccine against a lot of people who would doubt us and said it couldn't be done this way. Once he'd done that I think he felt, you know, he needed to do something else with his life, help humanity in a different way. He was free-thinking, he was an exceptionally creative man and he had this notion of a distinction between people who were evolvers and people who were maintainers of the status quo and he really wanted to populate the institute with creative people who were evolvers. Hope lies in dreams, in imagination, and in the courage of those who dare to turn dreams into reality. I see that quote from Jonas Salk every day when I walk through the courtyard and it really reminds me of why I came to the Salk Institute to do my research. There are no boundaries and that's really how great discoveries are made. I believe that beyond Polio that the institute will be his long-lasting legacy. It's a huge honor to be able to be here and celebrate his 100th anniversary.