Elisabeth Wollman
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15 August 1888
Elisabeth Wollman | |
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 Elisabeth Wollman in the early 1920s | |
| Born | Elisabeth Michelis 15 August 1888 |
| Died | 22 December 1943 (aged 55) |
| Alma mater | University of Liège |
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| Spouse | |
| Children |
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| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Biology |
| Institutions | |
Elisabeth Wollman (née Michelis; 15 August 1888 – 22 December 1943) was a microbiologist at the Pasteur Institute in Paris. Born in Minsk in a Jewish family, she graduated from the University of Liège with a degree in physics and mathematics. She married the son of family friends, Eugène Wollman, and moved with him to Paris, where he began his career at the Pasteur Institute. Pioneers in the field of molecular genetics, the Wollmans collaborated for two decades on work that lay critical groundwork for understanding viruses, cancer, and HIV.
In December 1943, the couple were deported to the Auschwitz concentration camp, where they died soon after arrival, presumably murdered in gas chambers. A former student, André Lwoff, continued their work after the war, leading to a Nobel Prize in 1965. Their son, Élie Wollman, was part of the team. He and his son, Francis-André Wollman, both had prominent careers in science. One of the Wollman's daughters, Nadine Marty, became a professor of physics, and the other, Alice, became a medical doctor. Elisabeth, Eugène, and Élie Wollman are memorialized for their contributions to biology by a plaque at the Pasteur Institute.
Elisabeth Wollman (née Michelis) was born in Minsk, then in the Russian Empire. Her husband-to-be, Eugène Wollman, was the son of long-time family friends.[1] Both were Jewish, and moved to Belgium to study, with Michelis gaining a degree in physics and mathematics at the University of Liège.[1]
The couple married after Eugène qualified as a doctor of medicine in 1909.[2] He had a scholarship to study at the Pasteur Institute, working as an assistant to Élie Metchnikoff. Elisabeth accompanied him there, working as a voluntary assistant to physicist, biologist, and chemist Jacques Duclaux from 1910 to 1920.[1] During that time, she gave birth to three children, Alice, Élie, and Nadine.[2] Alice became a medical doctor. Élie Wollman was the couple's second child, born in 1917, and named after Metchnikoff. He became a microbiologist and prominent scientist. Nadine Marty became a physicist and professor, serving as the director of a division of the nuclear physics institute of Université de Paris Sud.[2][3][4] Élie's son, Francis-André Wollman, also became a biologist, and research director of the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS).[5]
During the First World War, Eugène volunteered as a doctor. He served in Paris, at the eastern front, and in Africa, and was awarded a military medal. In 1922, he gained French citizenship in recognition of his war service.[1]
Scientific collaboration
In 1919, Eugène was promoted to head of a laboratory at the Pasteur, and Elisabeth collaborated with him, again on a voluntary basis, from 1923 to 1943. Between 1929 and 1932, the family lived in Chile, when Eugène served as the director of the Institute Sanitas in Santiago.[6]
The Wollmans co-authored most of the major publications of their work. Elisabeth had also co-authored a publication with Eugène in 1915. In 1933, she published a paper without his co-authorship, preceding a joint publication on the topic in 1935, indicative of the prominent role she had in their joint experimental work.[1][7] From 1920 to 1943, the couple conducted experiments in bacteria to study bacteriophages and lysogeny, the cycle of infections in bacteria.[8] They were among the first to recognise bacteriophage transmission of infection, a phenomenon they initially called "paraheredity". The Wollmans identified alternating infectious and non-infectious stages. Their studies in infection in bacteria made them early pioneers of molecular genetics.[9][10]
