Biography Of Louis Pasteur – Free PDF Download

Table of Contents

EARLY LIFE

Louis Pasteur was born on December 27, 1822, in Dole, Jura, France, to a Catholic family of a poor tanner. He was the third child of Jean-Joseph Pasteur and Jeanne-Etiennette Roqui.
In 1839, he entered the Collège Royal at Besançon to study philosophy and earned his Bachelor of Letters degree in 1840.
He managed to pass the baccalauréat scientifique (general science) degree in 1842 from Dijon but with a mediocre grade in chemistry.

In 1845 he received the licencié ès sciences (Master of Science) degree. In 1846, he was appointed professor of physics at the Collège de Tournon.
He joined Balard and simultaneously started his research in crystallography and in 1847, he submitted his two theses, one in chemistry and the other in physics.
After serving briefly as professor of physics at the Dijon Lycée in 1848, he became professor of chemistry at the University of Strasbourg.

Pasteur was appointed professor of chemistry at the University of Strasbourg in 1848, and became the chair of chemistry in 1852.
In 1854, he was named dean of the new faculty of sciences at University of Lille, where he began his studies on fermentation.
In 1857, he moved to Paris as the director of scientific studies at the École Normale Supérieure where he took control from 1858 to 1867 and introduced a series of reforms to improve the standard of scientific work.

In 1863, he was appointed professor of geology, physics position he held until his resignation in 1867. In 1867, he became the chair of organic chemistry at the Sorbonne, but he later gave up the position because of poor health.
In 1867, the École Normale’s laboratory of physiological chemistry was created at Pasteur’s request, and he was the laboratory’s director from 1867 to 1888. In Paris, he established the Pasteur Institute in 1887, in which he was its director for the rest of his life.

Pasteur was motivated to investigate fermentation while working at Lille. In 1856 a local wine manufacturer, M. Bigot, whose son was one of Pasteur’s students, sought for his advice on the problems of making beetroot alcohol and souring.
Pasteur also wrote about alcoholic fermentation.It was published in full form in 1858.He also demonstrated that, when a different microorganism contaminated the wine, lactic acid was produced, making the wine sour.
In 1861, Pasteur observed that less sugar fermented per part of yeast when the yeast was exposed to air. The lower rate of fermentation aerobically became known as the Pasteur effect.

Pasteur’s research also showed that the growth of micro-organisms was responsible for spoiling beverages, such as beer, wine and milk.
With this established, he invented a process in which liquids such as milk were heated to a temperature between 60 and 100 °C. This killed most bacteria and moulds already present within them.
In 1866, Pasteur published Etudes sur le Vin, about the diseases of wine, and he published Etudes sur la Bière in 1876, concerning the diseases of beer.

Pasteurization is a process in which water and certain packaged and non-packaged foods are treated with mild heat, usually to less than 100 °C (212 °F), to eliminate pathogens.
The process is intended to destroy or deactivate organisms and enzymes that contribute to spoilage or risk of disease.
Today, pasteurization is used widely in the dairy industry and other food processing industries to achieve food preservation and food safety.

Pasteur’s first vaccine discovery was in 1879, with a disease called chicken cholera. After accidentally exposing chickens to the attenuated form of a culture, he demonstrated that they became resistant to the actual virus.
Pasteur went on to extend his germ theory to develop causes and vaccinations for diseases such as anthrax, cholera, TB and smallpox.

Pasteur had been partially paralyzed since 1868, due to a severe brain stroke, but he was able to continue his research.
He celebrated his 70th birthday at the Sorbonne, which was attended by several prominent scientists, including British surgeon Joseph Lister.
At that time, his paralysis worsened, and he died on September 28, 1895. Pasteur’s remains were transferred to a Neo-Byzantine crypt at the Pasteur Institute in 1896.