The French government paid tribute on Monday to François Jacob, a Free French fighter whose post-World War II work in genetics earned him a share of the 1965 Nobel Prize for Medicine, reports GlobalPost.
Jacob, who died on Friday at the age of 92, was "a great researcher, a great doctor, one of those strong personalities whose insistence on truth and science allowed him to write history," said Health Minister Marisol Touraine.
The minister for higher education, Geneviève Fioraso, described Jacob as "an exceptional figure, one of those whose life and commitment are our country's pride."
Jacob, born in the eastern French city of Nancy in 1920, studied medicine before joining the Free French Forces in exile after France's defeat to the Nazis in 1940.
He took part in four campaigns in North Africa and France before being badly wounded in 1944 shortly after the D-Day landings. He was awarded France's highest decoration for valour, the Liberation Cross, as well as the Legion of Honour.
Jacob resumed his studies after the war with the idea of becoming a surgeon, but had to change career path because of the pain from his injuries.
He threw himself into the emerging field of cellular biology, where he unlocked insights into how enzymes are created from transcription -- the process by which DNA code is copied into a cousin molecule called RNA.
Read more of this AFP report published by GlobalPost.