Today, March 8 2006, the Distinguished Americans series reappears this month in two stamps. The Jonas Salk stamp is issued out of Washington D.C. 20066. Format will be a Single .63-cent definitive stamp, pane of 20.

This series has had seven other stamps released (honoring five individuals) since August 24, 2000 and oddly no releases in 2003 and 2005. Others in the past featured included General Joseph Stilwell, Claude Pepper, Hattie Caraway, Edna Ferber, and Wilma Rudolph.

Jonas Salk, the Medical Scientist who discovered the cure for polio, is featured this month in the .63-cent stamp. Time Magazine says that Salk’s career stood out for “the sheer speed with which he outraced all the other tortoises in the field and the honors he did not receive for doing so.”

Salk was born in New York City and was the first in his family to attend college. His original goal was a degree in Law, but soon found himself intrigued by medical science. He joined a research team to study influenza, whose virus had just recently been discovered. This research later became the basis for his work to stop polio. In countries where Salk’s vaccine has remained in use, the disease has been virtually eradicated.

For an interesting article on Jonas Salk, got to http://www.time.com/time/time100/scientist/profile/salk.html