This discovery became the foundation of a subdiscipline of chemistry known as stereochemistry, which is the study of the spatial arrangement of atoms within molecules. In 1848, just months after receiving his doctorate degree, Pasteur was studying the properties of crystals formed in the process of wine-making when he discovered that crystals occur in mirror-image forms, a property known as chirality.
During that time, Pasteur became interested in the origins of life and worked in the field of polarized light and crystallography. Pasteur studied under the French chemist Jean-Baptiste-André Dumas. However, his story begins with chemistry. In my assessment, Pasteur’s strongest contributions to science are his remarkable achievements in the field of medical microbiology and immunology. My career started in virology with a front-row seat to rabies detection and surveillance and zoonotic agents, and it rests in large part on Pasteur’s pioneering work in microbiology, immunology and vaccinology. I’ve worked in public health and medical laboratories specializing in viruses and other microbes, while training future medical laboratory scientists.
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His efforts fundamentally changed how people view infectious diseases and how to fight them via vaccines. Nobel Prizes, which are awarded in various fields, including physiology and medicine, are not given posthumously.ĭuring the current time of ongoing threats from emerging or reemerging infectious diseases, from COVID-19 and polio to monkeypox and rabies, it is awe-inspiring to look back on Pasteur’s legacy. Had he lived in the era of Nobel Prizes, he would undoubtedly have been deserving of one for his work. Remarkably, he also developed the rabies and anthrax vaccines and made major contributions to combating cholera.īut because he died in 1895, six years before the first Nobel Prize was awarded, that prize isn’t on his resume. He is widely credited for the germ theory of disease and for inventing the process of pasteurization – which is named after him – to preserve foods. Louis Pasteur, who lived from 1822 to 1895, is arguably the world’s best-known microbiologist.
Some of the greatest scientific discoveries haven’t resulted in Nobel Prizes.
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