André Michel Lwoff ForMemRS | |
|---|---|
 André Lwoff | |
| Born | (1902-05-08)8 May 1902 Ainay-le-Château,Allier, France |
| Died | 30 September 1994(1994-09-30) (aged 92) |
| Alma mater | Pasteur Institute |
| Known for | Provirus infection of bacteria |
| Spouse | Marguerite Lwoff |
| Awards |
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| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Microbiology |
| Institutions | |
André Michel Lwoff (8 May 1902 – 30 September 1994)[1][2][3] was a Frenchmicrobiologist andNobel laureate.
Lwoff was born inAinay-le-Château,Allier, inAuvergne, France, into aJewish family of Russian-Polish origin,[4][5] the son of Marie (Siminovitch), an artist, and Solomon Lwoff, a psychiatrist.[6] He joined theInstitute Pasteur in Paris when he was 19 years old. In 1932, he finished his PhD and, with the help of a grant from theRockefeller Foundation, moved with his wife and co-researcherMarguerite Lwoff to theKaiser Wilhelm Institute for Medical Research ofHeidelberg toOtto Meyerhof, where he did research on the development offlagellates. Another Rockefeller grant allowed him go to theUniversity of Cambridge in 1937. In 1938, he was appointed departmental head at theInstitut Pasteur, where he did groundbreaking research onbacteriophages,microbiota and on thepoliovirus.
He was awarded numerous prizes from the FrenchAcadémie des Sciences, theGrand Prix Charles-Leopold Mayer, theLeeuwenhoek Medal of theRoyal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1960 and theKeilin Medal of the BritishBiochemical Society in 1964. He was awarded aNobel Prize in Medicine in 1965 for the discovery of the mechanism that some viruses (which he namedproviruses) use to infectbacteria.[6] He was an elected member of the United StatesNational Academy of Sciences, theAmerican Academy of Arts and Sciences, and theAmerican Philosophical Society.[7][8][9] Throughout his career he partnered with his wifeMarguerite Lwoff although he gained considerably more recognition. Lwoff was elected aForeign Member of the Royal Society in 1958.[1] Lwoff was also president of theFEMS for a term of two years from 1974. The FEMS-Lwoff Award in microbiology is named in his honour.[10]
Lwoff was married to the microbiologist and virologist Marguerite Lwoff with whom he published many works. He was also ahumanist againstcapital punishment.[11]
His culture was not limited to biology: André Lwoff was a humanist (Lwoff 1981).
