<P> Lister's work led to a reduction in post-operative infections and made surgery safer for patients, distinguishing him as the "father of modern surgery". </P> <P> Lister came from a prosperous Quaker home in West Ham, Essex, England, a son of wine merchant Joseph Jackson Lister, who was also a pioneer of achromatic object lenses for the compound microscope . </P> <P> At school, he became a fluent reader of French and German . A young Joseph Lister attended Benjamin Abbott's Isaac Brown Academy, a Quaker school in Hitchin in Hertfordshire (since converted into the "Lord Lister" public house). As a teenager, Lister attended Grove House School in Tottenham, studying mathematics, natural science, and languages . </P> <P> He attended University College, London, one of only a few institutions which accepted Quakers at that time . He initially studied botany and obtained a bachelor of Arts degree in 1847 . He registered as a medical student and graduated with honours as Bachelor of Medicine, subsequently entering the Royal College of Surgeons at the age of 26 . In 1854, Lister became both first assistant to and friend of surgeon James Syme at the University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh Royal Infirmary in Scotland . There he joined the Royal Medical Society and presented two dissertations, in 1855 and 1871, which are still in the possession of the Society today . </P>

Who is considered the father of modern antibiotics