Élie Wollman

Élie Léo Wollman (July 4, 1917 – June 1, 2008) was a French microbial geneticist who first described plasmids (what he termed "episomes"), and served as vice director of research for the Pasteur Institute for twenty years.[1] He was awarded the 1976 Grand Prix Charles-Leopold Mayer by the French Academy of Sciences and Chevalier of the French Legion of Honour.[1] He is the son of microbiologists at the Pasteur Institute, Eugène and Elisabeth Wollman, and the father of Francis-André Wollman, another prominent scientist.

Élie Wollman
Born(1917-07-04)July 4, 1917
Paris, France
DiedJune 1, 2008(2008-06-01) (aged 90)
Paris, France
Known forPlasmids, conjugation
SpouseOdile Wollman
Scientific career
FieldsMicrobial genetics
InstitutionsPasteur Institute
ThesisRecherche sur la conjugaison des bactéries et sur le déterminisme génétique de la lysogénie [studies on bacterial conjugation and genetic determinism of lysogeny] (1958)

Research
  • In his lab at the Pasteur Institute in Paris Wollman played a key role in the elucidation of the organization of genetic material.[2]
  • Developed the experimental method of interrupted mating, which underpinned the gene mapping of bacterial chromosomes.[3][4] This work laid the foundation for Francois Jacob's Nobel prize-winning work.[1]
  • With Francois Jacob, he published a monograph, Sexuality and the genetics of bacteria (French title: La sexualité des bactéries), in 1959.[5]

Selected publications
  • Wollman, Élie L; François Jacob (1961). Sexuality and the genetics of bacteria. New York: Academic Press.
  • Wollman, E. L.; Jacob, F.; Hayes, W. (1956). "Conjugation and Genetic Recombination in Escherichia coli K-12". Cold Spring Harbor Symposia on Quantitative Biology. 21: 141–162. doi:10.1101/SQB.1956.021.01.012. PMID 13433587.

References
  1. Dantzer, Robert; Keith W. Kelley (2009). "Wollman, Elie (1917–2008)". In National Academy of Sciences (U.S.) (ed.). Biographical Memoirs. Washington, D.C.: National Academies Press. ISBN 978-0-309-09579-2.
  2. Archives Pasteur. "Elie Wollman (1917–2008) - Notice biographique" (Biographical sketch). Archives de l'Institut Pasteur. Retrieved 2012-12-24.
  3. Wollman, E. L.; Jacob, F.; Hayes, W. (1956). "Conjugation and Genetic Recombination in Escherichia coli K-12". Cold Spring Harbor Symposia on Quantitative Biology. 21: 141–162. doi:10.1101/SQB.1956.021.01.012. PMID 13433587.
  4. Harré, Rom (2002). Great Scientific Experiments: Twenty Experiments That Changed Our View of the World. Courier Dover Publications. ISBN 978-0-486-42263-3.
  5. Wollman, Élie L; François Jacob (1961). Sexuality and the genetics of bacteria. New York: Academic Press.


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