Aurel Babeş

Who was Aurel Babeş?

Aurel Babeş was a Romanian scientist and one of the discoverers of the vaginal smear as screening test for cervical cancer. He was the nephew of Victor Babeş, co-author of the first treaty of bacteriology.

Aurel Babeş was born in 1886, in Romania. His father, also named Aurel, was a chemistry professor. Aurel Babeş married fellow gynecologist Lucia Serbanescu in 1930. They adopted a daughter, who became an acclaimed opera singer. Babes was 74 years old when he died in Bucharest in 1961.

It is said that Aurel Babeş was very aware of the great international reputation that Georges Papanikolaou had gained in contrast to his own. In a spirit of recognition and fairness, Romania refers to cervical testing as "Methode Babeş-Papanicolaou" in honor of Babeş.