Albert Neisser was a German dermatologist who devoted his career to studying various skin diseases. Most notably, Neisser made important contributions to the study of venereal diseases and discovered the bacterium that causes gonorrhea. Neisseria is a genus of non-endospore forming diplococci which includes the species N. gonorrhoeae, the causative agent of gonorrhea and N. meningitidis, the causative agent of meningococcal meningitis.

Neisser was born on January 22, 1855 in Schweidnitz, Germany (now Swidnica, Poland). His father was a physician. Neisser, who lost his mother before he turned one, attended the Volksschule in Mnsterberg, continuing his education at St. Maria Magdalena Humanistic Gymnasium in Breslau, where he was a classmate with Paul Ehrlich. He entered medical school in 1872 at Breslau, where, under the direction of Anton Biermer, wrote a thesis on the Echinococcus, and graduated in 1877. It is interesting to note that Neisser was not an outstanding student and...