Dear colleagues, dear friends,
Our former colleague Claude de Bièvre passed away on Monday, November 14, 2022. Born in 1934, he quickly developed a passion for biology. After his science thesis in 1970 entitled “The biochemical and morphological study of the yeast and filamentous forms of Sporothrix schenckii”, he worked for a year as a researcher on Streptomyces in the research laboratory of the Waksman Institute of Microbiology under the supervision of Hubert Lechevalier from Rutgers University in New Jersey (USA), place of discovery of streptomycin, the first anti-tuberculosis drug. Back in France and proud to be a Pasteurian, he continued his research in the medical mycology department. He became Head of Laboratory and responsible for the Mycological Collection of the Institut Pasteur in Paris. He then succeeded François Mariat, a historical figure of Pasteur, when he was entrusted by Mr. Schwartz with the Direction of the Course in Medical Mycology at the Institut Pasteur in 1986, with the Head of Works, Patrick Boiron. For years, he taught this course in Medical Mycology, which trained many of us. He knew each of his students, benevolently following their respective careers. At the same time, he carried out his research for years, in particular on dermatophytes, a subject on which he published extensively and he co-wrote the “Clinical and Biological Atlas on Contaminating Fungi of Cultures, Opportunistic Fungi” with Guy Badillet and Eveline Guého. A major player in the SFMM, he had created the old website and followed us for several years after his retirement. Thus, he saw mycology evolve, from morphological study to high-throughput sequencing and the explosion of computing. His colleagues, his friends, his students, of whom he often spoke, describe him as a great taxonomist, an excellent teacher, a pleasant person and an upright man. In his personal life, he had met Jacqueline, his wife, on the benches of the faculty with whom he had three children. He mastered both oil painting and automobile mechanics. He had learned Spanish late in life to take courses at the Institut Pasteur in Venezuela. His passion had long been in botany, which he mastered. His bedside books were a compendium of botany and a Latin grammar, near photos of his wife. We are losing a great gentleman of French medical mycology. The funeral ceremony will take place on Tuesday, November 22 at 3 p.m. in the church of Ermont (Val d’Oise).
His son Pascal (), doctor, provided us with this photo of Claude for all those who knew him well.
Sincerely,
Francoise Botterel
