Jean Dausset

From Philosopedia

Jean Dausset (19 October 1916 - 6 June 2009)

Jean Baptiste Gabriel Joachim Dausset, who would become a Nobel Prize-winning immunologist, was born in Toulouse, France. His mother, Elizabeth Brullard Dausset from Lorraine, and his father Henri Dausset from the Pyrénées, was a physician. His parents had met in Paris, where his father, a captain and doctor, sent his mother and their three children to Toulouse

Dausset's schooling and career included the following:

Lycée Michelet, Marseille, France (1935)

University: BS Mathematics, University of Paris (1939)

Medical School: MD, University of Paris (1945)

Administrator: Laboratory Director, French National Blood Transfusion Center (1946-48, 49-58)

Scholar: Haematology, Harvard Medical School (1948-49)

Teacher: Haematology, University of Paris (1958-63)

Professor: Haematology, University of Paris (1963-77)

Administrator: Director, French National Institute for Scientific Research (1968-)

Professor: Experimental Medicine, Collège de France (1977-)

He oversaw many blood transfusions. When the German Army occupied France and a Jewish colleague feared he would be killed, Dausset gave him his identification papers, allowing him to escape from France.

In 1963, he married Rosita Lopez Dausset, and they had Henri Dausset and a daughter, Irène.

Prizes Received

Grand Prix des Sciences Chimiques et Naturelles (Académie des Sciences) 1967

Médaille d'Argent du Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique 1967

Grand Prix Scientifique de la Ville de Paris 1968

Prix Cognac-Jay (Académie des Sciences de l'Institut de France) 1969

Stratton Lecture Award (U.S.A.) 1970

Landsteiner Award AABB, San Francisco (U.S.A.) 1970

Gairdner Foundation Prize (Canada) 1977

Koch Foundation Prize (Germany) 1978

Wolf Foundation Prize (Israel) 1978

The Nobel Prize

Dausset's biography is online at Nobelprize.org\. He shared the 1980 Prize for Medicine with Baruj Benacerraf and George D. Snell

Works

Dausset wrote the following:

Histocompatibility (1976, with George D. Snell and Stanley Nathenson)

HLA and Disease (1977, with Arne Svejgaard)

Clein d'oeil a la Vie (1998, autobiography)

HLA-G Expression as Regulator of Immune Recognition (1999, with Edgardo D Carosella)

Dausset told the Nobel Committee that in addition to his scientific interests, he has only two passions in life: his family and modern plastic art.

He died in Palma at the age of 92 and was buried in Soller, a municipality in which he had chosen to be buried. He was buried, according to the Majorca Daily Bulletin (10 June 2009), in a tomb ceded by Pedro Serra. Dausset's family opened a chapel for people to pay their last respects at the morgue of Son Valenti in Palma. Dausset was not affiliated with any organized religious groups. At the funeral were Argentinean scientist Ezgardo Carosella and Central Government delegate in the Balearics Ramon Socias. In 2003 Dausset was made an adoptive son of Soller.

Obituaries included the following: Le Monde; New York Times.