Louis Pasteur (1822–95)

French chemist and microbiologist. Professor of chemistry, Strasbourg University, 1849–54. Professor of chemistry and dean of the science faculty, Lille University, 1854–7. Administrator and director of scientific studies, Ecole normale, Paris, 1857–67; director of the laboratory of physiological chemistry, 1867–88. Professor of chemistry, the Sorbonne, Paris, 1867–74. Director of the Institut Pasteur, Paris, 1888–95. Renowned for his work on fermentation and for experiments providing evidence against the theory of spontaneous generation. Foreign member, Royal Society of London, 1869.