Pasteur, Louis (1822-1895)
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Pasteur, Louis
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19th Century
Born: Dôle (France), 1822
Died: St.-Cloud (France), 1895
Pasteur was not a remarkably good student in chemistry, he received the mark "mediocre". However, he attended the lectures of Dumas in Paris, which fired him with enthusiasm. Pasteur studied the crystals of tartrates under the microscope. He separated the two different types of asymmetric crystals and proved that they were optical isomers (1848). This achievement made him famous and in 1854 he became professor at the University of Lille. There he discovered that fermentation did involve living organisms, which could be killed by gentle heating (pasteurisation). Pasteur also did a lot of work in medicine e.g. the theory of infectious diseases, and the use of vaccinations (he is considered as the founder of bacteriology).
Related Links
The Work of Louis Pasteur
The Year of Louis Pasteur