PASTEUR, Louis (Pasteur Louis)

(1822-1895)
Born December 27, 1822 in Dole. He graduated from the Ecole Normale Supц?rieure in Paris (1847), defended his doctoral dissertation (1848). He taught science at Dijon (1847-1848), was a professor of Strasbourg (1849-1854) and Lille (since 1854) universities. In 1857 became dean of the Faculty of Natural Sciences in the Higher Normal School from 1867 - professor of chemistry at the University of Paris. In 1888, founded and headed the Research Institute of microbiological (later Pasteur Institute).
His first discovery of Pasteur did in his student years, revealing the optical asymmetry of molecules. Separate the two crystalline forms of tartaric acid, it showed that they differ in their optical activity (right-and levogyrate form). These studies formed the basis of a new scientific direction - stereochemistry. Later, Pasteur found that the optical isomers is characteristic for many organic compounds, with natural products, in contrast to synthetic, represented only one of the two isomeric forms.

Since 1857 Pasteur began studying fermentation processes. As a result of numerous experiments proved that fermentation - the biological process caused by the activities of microorganisms. Developing further these ideas, argued that each type of fermentation (lactic acid, alcohol, acetic) is caused by specific micro-organisms ( 'germs'). Pasteur presented his theory in an article on the prowl, called milk (Sur la fermentation appele lactique, 1857). In 1861 it opened the microorganisms that cause Butyric fermentation - anaerobic bacteria, living and developing in the absence of free oxygen. Anaerobiosis Pasteur's discovery has prompted the idea that organisms that live in an environment devoid of oxygen, fermentation replaces breath. In 1860-1861 Pasteur proposed a method of preserving foods by thermal processing (later called pasteurization).

In 1865, Pasteur began to study the nature of the disease of the silkworm, and as a result of years of research has developed methods to combat this infectious disease (1880). He studied other infectious diseases of animals and humans (anthrax, rabies, night blindness, rubella pigs, etc.). He suggested a method of vaccination against these and other infectious diseases with the use of attenuated cultures of the causative microorganisms. Proposed the name of culture attenuated vaccines, and the procedure for their application - vaccination. In 1880 Pasteur established the viral nature of rabies.
Pasteur was a member of academies of sciences of many countries, including St. Petersburg and Paris.
Pasteur died in Saint-Cloud near Paris, September 28, 1895