Luc Montagnier, the French virologist credited as a co-discoverer of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), Nobel Prize in 2008, and Prigogine Laureate 2019, has died aged 89.
Montagnier was jointly awarded the 2008 Nobel Prize for his work in isolating the virus that causes Aids.
He first began working on the virus in the early 1980s while at France's Pasteur Institute. Montagnier and his team examined tissue samples from patients with the new syndrome. They successfully isolated HIV in the lymph node of an Aids patient and published news of the discovery in 1983.
Montagnier later generated huge criticism for a series of unscientific claims, including over the causes of autism and later over the origins of Covid-19.
Born in 1932 in the central French town of Chabris, Montagnier began working at Paris's Faculty of Sciences in 1955.
He moved to the Pasteur Institute in 1972, and after his work on HIV, became Head of the foundation before moving to Queens College, City University of New York in 1997.
In 2019, Montagnier was awarded the Prigogine Medal by the Wessex Institute (WIT) during a ceremony that took place at the Polytechnic University of Valencia on 2nd October during the 13th International Conference on Urban Regeneration and Sustainability (Sustainable City 2019). See the 2019 Prigogine Award page for more details.
Luc Montagnier died at the American hospital in Neuilly-sur-Seine on 8th February, surrounded by family.
Wessex Institute