August von Wassermann
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August Paul von Wassermann (21 February 1866 - 16 March 1925) was the German bacteriologist. He studied at several prestigious universities throughout Germany, and in 1890 began to work under Robert Koch at the Institute for Infectious Diseases in Berlin. He developed a complement fixation test for the diagnosis of syphilis in 1906, just one year after the causative organism had been identified. He came head of the department of therapeautics and serum research in 1907.
The Wassermann test remains a staple of syphilis detection and prevention in some areas, although it has often been replaced by more modern alternatives.