Luc Montagnier
French virologist and Nobel laureate (1932–2022)
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Key Takeaways
- He worked as a researcher at the Pasteur Institute in Paris and as a full-time professor at Shanghai Jiao Tong University in China.
- During the COVID-19 pandemic, Montagnier promoted the lab-leak theory that SARS-CoV-2, the causative virus, was deliberately created and escaped from a laboratory.
- Early life and education Montagnier was born in Chabris in central France.
- He studied science at the University of Poitiers, France, and then became an assistant in the Faculty of Sciences at Sorbonne University, where he obtained a PhD.
- In 1963, he moved to the Glasgow Institute of Virology.
Luc Montagnier (US: MON-tən-YAY, MOHN-tahn-YAY, French: [lyk mɔ̃taɲe]; 18 August 1932 – 8 February 2022) was a French virologist and joint recipient, with Françoise Barré-Sinoussi and Harald zur Hausen, of the 2008 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his discovery of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). He worked as a researcher at the Pasteur Institute in Paris and as a full-time professor at Shanghai Jiao Tong University in China.
In 2017, Montagnier was criticised by other academics for using his Nobel prize status to "spread dangerous health messages outside of his field of knowledge". During the COVID-19 pandemic, Montagnier promoted the lab-leak theory that SARS-CoV-2, the causative virus, was deliberately created and escaped from a laboratory. Such a claim has been rejected by other virologists.
Early life and education
Montagnier was born in Chabris in central France. Montagnier became interested in science as a teenager. He studied science at the University of Poitiers, France, and then became an assistant in the Faculty of Sciences at Sorbonne University, where he obtained a PhD.
Career
In 1960, Montagnier moved to Carshalton, UK as a postdoctoral fellow at the now defunct Virus Research Unit of the Medical Research Council (United Kingdom). In 1963, he moved to the Glasgow Institute of Virology. He developed a soft agar culture medium to culture viruses.
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