Johannes Fibiger
Danish physician
- Fame52.9
- Momentum0.0
- Doctors rank#245
Source-basedFalling
- Fame52.9
- Momentum0.0
- Doctors rank#245
- Wikipedia1.1K
Lived 1867–1928, aged 61
DoctorsDoctor
Network
In their orbit
People connected to Johannes Fibiger
Summary
Updated 2026-06-10
Johannes Fibiger won the 1926 Nobel Prize in Medicine for proving that a roundworm caused stomach cancer in rats — except it didn't. The tumours were vitamin A deficiency, the conclusion mistaken, and the prize later called "one of the biggest blunders" by the awarding institute itself.
Biography
About
Fibiger, a Danish physician and professor of anatomical pathology at the University of Copenhagen, found roundworms in wild rats in 1907 and suspected they caused the stomach cancers he observed. By 1913 he reported he could experimentally induce cancer in healthy rats using the parasite — a claim hailed at the time as "the greatest contribution to experimental medicine." He was passed over for the 1926 Nobel alongside another researcher, then retrospectively awarded it alone the following year. After his death in 1928, independent work dismantled the finding: the roundworm Gongylonema neoplas…
Gallery
Photos
6 images · refresh overdue
Where to find them
Platforms
No platforms connected yet.
By the numbers
Score breakdown
The six component signals behind the Fame score, and their ranks across the leaderboards.
Fame
Falling52.9
Composite of search demand, mentions, audience & graph footprint.
Score components
Historical22.0
Source confidence60.0
Completeness60.0
Receipts
Sources
- WikipediaHigh confidencewikipedia · en.wikipedia.org
- WikidataHigh confidencewikidata · wikidata.org
- Pantheon 2.0High confidencedatabase · pantheon.world
Discover
You might know
Similar profiles worth watching
