Source: National Archives & Historic Records of French Republic
Science • Historical Archive • 🇫🇷 France • 0 views

Jacques Monod 🇫🇷

Jacques Lucien Monod (Known as "Jacques Monod")
Biochemist, Nobel Prize in Medicine (1965), Operon Model, Author of Chance and Necessity
Born Feb 09, 1910 🇫🇷 Paris, France
Passed Away May 31, 1976 Cannes, France
Lifespan 66 years old
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"Man knows at last that he is alone in the unfeeling immensity of the universe, out of which he emerged only by chance."

Archival Overview

Visionary French biochemist who won the 1965 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with François Jacob and André Lwoff for the 'lac operon' model of gene regulation, and authored the philosophical classic Chance and Necessity.

Biographical Record

Son of a painter and American mother, Monod studied at the Sorbonne and joined the French Resistance (FTP), becoming chief of staff for operations in military region 1 during the Liberation of Paris. Joining the Pasteur Institute in 1945, he tackled the mechanism of enzyme induction.

In 1961, with François Jacob, Monod discovered the 'operon' model and genetic repression, proving how genes turn on and off. His 1970 philosophical book Le Hasard et la Nécessité (Chance and Necessity) argued that life arose through blind chance, declaring that humanity must forge its own values in an indifferent cosmos; he served as Director of the Pasteur Institute.

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Final Resting Place

Perpetual Memorial
Grand Jas Cemetery (Cimetière du Grand Jas)
Cannes (Alpes-Maritimes), France
GPS: 43.5583, 7.0083
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