Stanley Alan Plotkin is an American physician who works as a consultant to vaccine manufacturers, such as Sanofi Pasteur, as well as biotechnology firms, non-profits and governments.

In the 1960s, he played a pivotal role in discovery of a vaccine against rubella virus while working at Wistar Institute in Philadelphia.

While attending Bronx Science, at the age of 15, he read a pair of books that greatly influenced his future education and career choices: Arrowsmith by Sinclair Lewis and Microbe Hunters by Paul de Kruif.

[9] Plotkin, working with Tadeusz Wiktor and Hilary Koprowski, produced a human vaccine for rabies during the 1960s and 1970s also on the WI-38 cell strain gifted to them by Leonard Hayflick.

His lifetime of work on vaccines has led to profound reductions in both morbidity and mortality not only in the United States, but throughout the world.

He demonstrates the combination of scholar, scientist and public servant exemplified by Dr. Maxwell Finland.Plotkin and his wife, Susan, have two children, Michael and Alec.

In 1957, Plotkin wanted to join the US Air Force so that he could learn to fly, but instead he went to work for the Epidemic Intelligence Service.