Émile Duclaux, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of Death

    

Émile Duclaux

microbiologist and chemist

Date of Birth: 24-Jun-1840

Place of Birth: Aurillac, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, France

Date of Death: 05-Feb-1904

Profession: physician, professor, physicist, chemist, Esperantist, biologist, biochemist

Nationality: France

Zodiac Sign: Cancer


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About Émile Duclaux

  • Émile Duclaux (24 June 1840 – May 2, 1904) was a French microbiologist and chemist born in Aurillac, Cantal. He studied at the College of Aurillac, the Lycée Saint-Louis in Paris and at École Normale Supérieure.
  • In 1862 he began work as an assistant in the laboratory of Louis Pasteur (1822–1895).
  • During his career, he taught classes in Tours (1865), Clermont-Ferrand (1866), Lyon (from 1873) and Paris (from 1878).
  • In Paris, he was a professor of meteorology at the Institute of Agronomy.
  • For much of his career he was associated with the work of Louis Pasteur. In 1888 he was elected to the Académie des sciences, and in 1894 became a member of the Académie Nationale de Médecine. Duclaux's work was largely in the fields of chemistry, bacteriology, hygiene and agriculture.
  • Duclaux initiated the custom of naming enzymes by adding the suffix "-ase" to the enzyme's substrate.
  • His intention was to honor the first scientists (namely Anselme Payen, 1795–1871; and Jean-François Persoz, 1805–1868) to isolate an enzyme; "diastase", in 1833.
  • With Pasteur, he collaborated in the study of silkworm diseases, and also took part in experiments to debunk the theory of spontaneous generation.
  • In the 1870s, he undertook studies of phylloxera, an aphid-like pest that plagued grape vineyards.
  • In addition, he performed research on the composition of milk, and conducted studies on beer and wine. In 1887 he began publication of the Annales de l'Institut Pasteur, with Charles Chamberland (1851-1908), Jacques-Joseph Grancher (1843–1907), Edmond Nocard (1850–1903) and Pierre Paul Émile Roux (1853–1933) as members of the first editorial board.
  • Following Pasteur's death in 1895, Duclaux became director of the Institute, with Roux and Chamberland serving as its sub-directors. Duclaux was a prolific writer, some of his better known publications were Traité de microbiologie, L'hygiène sociale, Ferments et maladies and Pasteur, histoire d'un esprit, the latter being a biography dedicated to Pasteur. Being actively involved in French politics, he was a vocal supporter of Alfred Dreyfus (1859-1935), when the latter was unjustly accused of treason.
  • Duclaux's second wife, Agnes Mary Frances Duclaux (maiden name Agnes Mary Frances Robinson 1857–1944), was a well-known author, and his son, Jacques Eugène Duclaux (1877–1978), was a highly regarded chemist.

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