Guy Ourisson

Ourisson, a French chemist whose father was a non-observant Jew from Poland (his mother was Catholic), was a leading authority on terpenes and the natural chemistry of biomolecules. He identified 'molecular fossils' — hopanoids and other sterol precursors preserved in ancient rocks and petroleum — and proposed how membrane-reinforcing molecules evolved from simple terpenes toward cholesterol. A founder and first president of the University of Strasbourg, he also led the French Academy of Sciences.