Gustav Giemsa
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Gustav Giemsa (1867-1948} was a German chemist known for creating a dye solution commonly known as "Giemsa stain". This dye is used for the histopathological diagnosis of malaria and parasites such as Plasmodium, Trypanosoma, and Chlamydia.
He was an early assistant to Bernhard Nocht at the famous Institut für Tropenmedizin in Hamburg, where he became the head of the Department of Chemistry in 1900. Giemsa also spent a considerable portion of his career in locations such as Brazil and German East Africa (Tanzania) working with tropical diseases.
In 1904 Giemsa published an essay on the staining procedure for flagellates, blood cells, and bacteria. Giemsa improved the Romanowsky stain (Eosin Y and Methylene Blue) by stabilizing this dye solution with glycerol. This allowed for reproducible staining of cells for microscopy purposes. This method is still used in laboratories today.
