Jacques Ricard
French scientist (born 1929)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jacques Ricard (6 August 1929 – 28 December 2018),[1] was a French biophysicist known for studies of plant enzymes and for developing the concept of enzyme memory.
Jacques Ricard | |
|---|---|
Jacques Ricard in Lourmarin, June 2005 | |
| Born | 6 August 1929 Marseille, France |
| Died | 28 December 2018 (aged 89) |
| Education | Aix-Marseille University; the Sorbonne (Thèse d'État, 1957) |
| Spouse | Katharina (Käty) |
| Children | 1 son: Philippe |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Biophysics of enzymes |
| Institutions | La Sorbonne; Cornell University; Aix-Marseille University; CNRS, Marseille; Institut Jacques Monod, Paris; University Paris Diderot |
| Academic advisors | Georges Teissier |
Personal life
Jacques Ricard was born on 6 August 1929 in Marseille,[2] where he spent his early life and education. After retirement he lived in Lourmarin, in the Vaucluse at the edge of the Luberon,[3] and he died in Le Nayrac, Aveyron on 28 December 2018.[2] He married Katharina (Käty), philosopher of science and author of Penser la Vie.[4] They had one son, Philippe, a cardiologist.
Education
Ricard studied mathematics and biology at Aix-Marseille University and the Sorbonne (Thèse d'État, 1957).[5]
Career
Ricard started his career as a young researcher in statistics in the laboratory of Georges Teissier at the Sorbonne.[6] After a postdoctoral period at Cornell University[2] he moved to Aix-Marseille University, where he was a lecturer and later professor of plant biochemistry. At the university he created and directed a CNRS laboratory in plant biology, later directing the CNRS Centre for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, also in Marseille.[6] Subsequently he moved to Paris as director of the Jacques Monod Institute, associated with the Université Paris-Diderot and the CNRS.[6] He retired in 1999, but remained active to the end of his life,[5] as exemplified by his book[7] in which he explained why the whole is more than the sum of its parts.[8] followed by another book on a similar theme published towards the end of his life.[9]
Research
During the first part of his career Ricard's research was dedicated to the study of enzymes involved in plant metabolism, including yeast hexokinase,[10][11] a collaboration with R. J. P. Williams on turnip peroxidases,[12] and other work on peroxidases.[13]
A long-term interest in allosteric and cooperative behaviour led to a retrospective review two decades after the principal models of cooperativity were established.[14]
The study of yeast hexokinase[10][11] led to what became a major interest, the development of the "mnemonical model“[15] as an example of enzyme memory,[16] later extended to multienzyme systems,[17][18][19] following a discovery that five enzymes of the Calvin cycle existed as a complex in chloroplasts.[20]
In the light of his textbook[21] he became a member of the panel that prepared the current IUBMB recommendations on enzyme kinetics.[22]
In 1983 Ricard organized, with Athel Cornish-Bowden, a NATO Advanced Research Workshop in Marseille on Dynamics of Biochemical Systems in which several notable scientists participated: Keith Dalziel, Albert Goldbeter, Mario Markus, Peter Schuster.[23]
After his formal retirement Ricard became increasingly interested in applying his training in mathematics to general questions of complexity[7][24][25] and the origin and definition of life.[9][26][27]
Honours
Jacques Ricard was elected corresponding member of the Académie des Sciences in 1990, in the section of integrative biology.[1]