Louis Pasteur Biography
Louis Pasteur was a chemist and microbiologist, born in eastern France,
and is one of the founders of medical microbiology. Pasteur earned a Bachelor of Science degree in
1842, and a year later he was admitted to a teacher's college in Paris, where he studied
under French chemist Jean-Baptiste André Dumas. Pasteur later obtained his Master's degree and
finally his Doctorate in Sciences in 1847. Pasteur's doctoral thesis on crystallography,
which concerned the arrangement of atoms in solids, earned him a position as Professor
of Chemistry at the University of Strasbourg. Pasteur held many academic positions and
pioneered the study of molecular asymmetry and discovered that microorganisms cause
fermentation and disease. His discoveries helped to reduce the mortality rate from fever.
He is best known for creating the technique known as pasteurisation. Pasteurisation is the process
of heating a liquid to a specific temperature for a fixed amount of time, and then cooling it.
The process helped Pasteur to slow microbial growth in milk and wine.
He also developed new vaccines for rabies and anthrax. Pasteur was awarded Microbiology's
highest Dutch honour in Arts and Sciences, as well as the National Order of the Legion of
Honour in France. Several academic institutions are named after Louis Pasteur in admiration of
his profound discoveries. His life's scientific work continues to promote study in bacteriology,
microbiology, immunology, stereochemistry and virology.