American physician who worked for the U.S. Army and discovered that yellow fever was a mosquito-borne illness.
He received his medical degree from the University of Virginia when he was eighteen years old.
His medical team's yellow fever discovery allowed for the control of the disease and paved the way for the completion of construction on the Panama Canal.
He married Emily Lawrence in 1876. The couple became parents to two biological children as well as an adopted Native American daughter.
Scientist Robert Koch was responsible for some of the advances in bacteriology research that allowed Reed's team to investigate the transmission, prevention, and treatment of yellow fever.
