Lakhasly

LoLouis Pasteur was born on December 27, 1822, in Dole, Jura, France, to a Catholic family of a poor tanner.[4] He was the third child of Jean-Joseph Pasteur and Jeanne-Etiennette Roqui. The family moved to Marnoz in 1826 and then to Arbois in 1827.[11][12] Pasteur entered primary school in 1831.[13]

He was an average student in his early years, and not particularly academic, as his interests were fishing and sketching.[4] He drew many pastels and portraits of his parents, friends and neighbors.[14] Pasteur attended secondary school at the Collège d'Arbois.[15] In October 1838, he left for Paris to join the Pension Barbet, but became homesick and returned in November.[16]

In 1839, he entered the Collège Royal at Besançon to study philosophy and earned his Bachelor of Letters degree in 1840.[17] He was appointed a tutor at the Besançon college while continuing a degree science course with special mathematics.[18] He failed his first examination in 1841. He managed to pass the baccalauréat scientifique (general science) degree in 1842 from Dijon but with a mediocre grade in chemistry.[19]

Later in 1842, Pasteur took the entrance test for the École Normale Supérieure.[20] He passed the first set of tests, but because his ranking was low, Pasteur decided not to continue and try again next year.[21] He went back to the Pension Barbet to prepare for the test. He also attended classes at the Lycée Saint-Louis and lectures of Jean-Baptiste Dumas at the Sorbonne.[22] In 1843, he passed the test with a high ranking and entered the École Normale Supérieure.[23] In 1845 he received the licencié ès sciences (Master of Science) degree.[24] In 1846, he was appointed professor of physics at the Collège de Tournon (now called Lycée Gabriel-Faure (fr)) in Ardèche, but the chemist Antoine Jérôme Balard wanted him back at the École Normale Supérieure as a graduate laboratory assistant (agrégé préparateur).[25] He joined Balard and simultaneously started his research in crystallography and in 1847, he submitted his two theses, one in chemistry and the other in physics.[24][26]

After serving briefly as professor of physics at the Dijon Lycée in 1848, he became professor of chemistry at the University of Strasbourg,[27] where he met and courted Marie Laurent, daughter of the university's rector in 1849. They were married on May 29, 1849,[28] and together had five children, only two of whom survived to adulthood;[29] the other three died of typhoid.

Career