Born on this date in 1910 in Paris, Jacques Lucien Monod studied at the Sorbonne before emigrating to the United States in 1936. He joined the California Institute of Technology and began research on the fruit fly. During World War II, Monod joined the French resistance and turned his Sorbonne laboratory into an underground meeting place and propaganda print shop for the French resistance. He was captured by the Gestapo but managed to escape. Monod continued his work on enzymes and in 1971 was named director general of the Pasteur Institute. In 1965, he won the Nobel Prize with Francois Jacob and Andre Lwoff for their discovery of how DNA and mRNA interact to shape all the tissues of life. Monod died in 1976.

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