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Revision as of 20:54, 2 February 2006 by Pforpeace (talk | contribs)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)René Jules Dubos (1901-1982), was a French-born American microbiologist, experimental pathologist, environmentalist, humanist, and Pulitzer Prize-winning author who exemplified qualities of the modern Renaissance person. He devoted most of his professional life to the empirical study of microbial diseases and to the analysis of the environmental and social factors that affect the welfare of humans. His pioneering research in isolating antibacterial substances from certain soil microorganisms led to the discovery of major antibiotics. He performed groundbreaking research and wrote extensively on a number of subjects, including: tuberculosis, pneumonia, and the mechanisms of acquired immunity, natural susceptibility, and resistance to infection.
In later years, Dubos explored the interplay of environmental forces and the physical, mental and spiritual development of mankind. The main tenets of his humanistic philosophy were: global problems are conditioned by local circumstances and choices, social evolution enables us to rethink human actions and change direction to promote an ecologically balanced environment, the future is optimistic since human life and nature are resilient and we have become increasingly aware of the dangers inherent in natural forces and human activities, and we can benefit from our successes and apply the lessons learned to solving other contemporary environmental problems.
Rene Jules Dubos was born on February 20, 1901 in the French city of Saint-Brice-Sous-Foret in the farming country of the Île-de-France, north of Paris. After graduating from the Institut national agronomique in Paris, he emigrated to the United States and earned his doctoral degree at Rutgers University in 1927. His dissertation focused on the manner in which different soil organisms living in different environments decompose cellulose. His observations regarding similar microbes' biological activity living in different environments would later be extended to the debate on global ecological issues. Dubos joined the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research where he spent his entire scientific career with the exception of a two-year period (1942-44) when he was professor of tropical medicine at Harvard University Medical School.
Dubos’ writings demonstrate how his interest in the environment evolved from a bacterial context to a humanistic and social perspective. His scientific contributions and environmental philosophy are embodied in such works as Bacterial and Mycotic Infections in Man (1948), Biochemical Determinants of Microbial Diseases (1954), Mirage of Health; Utopias, Progress, and Biological Change (1959), Pasteur and Modern Medicine (1960), Man, Medicine, Environment (1968), So Human an Animal (1968; Pulitizer Prize, 1969), and Only One Earth (1972), Wooing of Earth (1980), and Celebrations of Life (1982).
He served as chairman of the trustees of the Rene Dubos Center for Human Environment, a non-profit education and research organization, which was dedicated in his honor in 1980. The mission of the Center which was co-founded by William and Ruth Eblen is to “assist the general public and decision-makers in formulating policies for the resolution of environmental problems and the creation of environmental values.” Dubos remained actively involved in the programs of the Centre and activities until his death in 1982.
In 1998 the Rene Dubos Center for Human Environments generously donated a large portion of its environmental library and archives to Pace University. The collection consists of works by Dubos as well as those of other leading environmental scholars, some of which have been annotated by Dubos himself. According to Robert Chapman, Professor of Philosophy and Coordinator of Pace’s Environmental Studies Program, “Pace now has many of Dubos’ own research books from the Rockefeller University and this means that we can not only look at his writing, but we can also do an analysis of where his ideas come from and what influenced him.”
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