Patricia Ann Webb

Patricia Ann Webb (5 April 1925 – 24 January 2005) was a microbiologist known for her work in characterising and classifying severe contagious diseases including Machupo, Lassa and Ebola viruses. Early life and education Webb was born in Cambridge, England in 1925. Her father was medical doctor and Oxford Professor of Pathology Robert A. Webb. She was sent to the United States in 1940 in an evacuation during the Blitz. Webb received her first degree from Agnes Scott College in 1945 and continued on to medical school at Tulane University. She graduated in 1950 and completed placements at St. Joseph's Mercy Hospital in Pontiac, Michigan and at Kern General Hospital in Bakersfield, California. Career and research Webb began her virology research on western equine encephalomyelitis, an outbreak of which affected many children in California in 1952. Between 1955 and 1961, she worked on isolating previously unknown viruses associated fevers in Kuala Lumpur at the US Army Medical Research Unit.