High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Michael Heidelberger (April 29, 1888 – June 25, 1991) was an American immunologist who is regarded as the father of modern immunology. He and Oswald Avery showed that the polysaccharides of pneumococcus are antigens, enabling him to show that antibodies are proteins. He spent almost his entire career at Columbia University, though in his later years he was also on the faculty of New York University. In 1934 and 1936 he received the Guggenheim Fellowship. In 1967 he received the National Medal of Science, and then he earned the Lasker Award for basic medical research in 1953 and again in 1978.