Louis Pasteur

Louis Pasteur was a French chemist and microbiologist born 27 December 1822. Early work on sodium ammonium tartrate opened the field of optical isomerism, with implications that rippled through structural and medicinal chemistry. In 1862 the French Academy of Sciences awarded him the Alhumbert Prize for disproving spontaneous generation: sterilized sealed flasks stayed sterile, open ones grew microorganisms. That experiment fed his larger push for germ theory, then a minor idea, which his work on killing germs to prevent disease brought into clinical practice. He invented pasteurization to stop bacterial contamination in milk and wine, and developed vaccines for rabies and anthrax - credited with saving millions. He directed the Pasteur Institute from its founding in 1887 until his death on 28 September 1895, and was buried beneath it, though later review of his notebooks revealed he practiced deception to best his rivals.