Grignard, Victor (1871-1935)

Grignard, Victor

CHEMIST (FRANCE)

BORN 6 May 1871, Cherbourg, Manche - DIED 13 Dec 1935, Lyon
BIRTH NAME Grignard, François Auguste Victor
GRAVE LOCATION Lyon: Cimetière de la Guillotière Nouveau, avenue Berthelot

Victor Gignard attended local schools before he won a scholarship in 1889 to the École Normale Spécial at Cluny. He was educated as a teacher, but after two years the school was closed. He entered the Faculté des Sciences of the University of Lyon. He failed an examination in mathematics and in 1892 he joined the army for his military service. he returned to Lyon in 1893 and in 1894 he obtained the Licencié ès Sciences Mathématiques degree. He worked at the Faculté des Sciences with Louis Bouveault and then for a long time with Philippe Barbier. In 1898 he wrote his forst paper in collboration with Barbier. In 1901 he was promoted to Doctor of Sciences.

In 1905 he joined the university of Besançon as Maître de Conférences, but in 1906 he returned to Lyon and in 1908 he was appointed Professor of General Chemics. In 1909 he succeeded Blaise at the Department of Organic Chemistry in Nancy. He married Augustine Marie Boulant in 1910 and they had a son and a daughter. In 1912 he was awarded the Nobel Prize (shared with Paul Sabatier) for his discovery of the Grignard reagent. He rejoined the army for a while during the First World War and left it again to work on subjects related to chemical warfare in Nancy. In 1917 he visited the USA for the Tardee Committee and he lectured at the Mellon Institute.

In 1919 he returned to Lyon to succeed Barbier as Professor of General Chemics. In 1929 he became the Dean of the Faculty of Sciences. He authored circa 170 publications and was working on a general work of reference when he died in Lyon in 1935. Since 1933 he was a Commander of the Legion of Honour.

Images

The grave of Victor Grignard at the Cimetière de la Guillotière Nouveau, Lyon.
Picture by Androom (06 Nov 2009)