Editing Louis Pasteur (section)

== Career ==
[[File:Louis Pasteur, French biologist, 1878, Paris slnsw.jpg|thumb|Louis Pasteur, French biologist and chemist, 1878, by A Gerschel]]
Pasteur was appointed professor of chemistry at the University of Strasbourg in 1848, and became the chair of chemistry in 1852.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Debré|first1=Patrice|translator-last=Forster|translator-first=Elborg|title=Louis Pasteur|date=2000|publisher=JHU Press|location=Baltimore|isbn=978-0-8018-6529-9|pages=502–503}}</ref>

In February 1854, so that he would have time to carry out work that could earn him the title of correspondent of the Institute, he got three months' paid leave with the help of a medical certificate of convenience.<ref>"Without this work that I was asked to do for the Correspondence of the Institute, I would have stayed in Strasbourg. But you understand that this leave that these missions made me have with full salary is an irregularity that needs to be covered by a health reason." (Pasteur, letter of 25 February 1854 to his father, in Pasteur, ''Correspondence'', t. 1, Paris, 1940, p. 261.)</ref> He extended the leave until 1 August, the date of the start of the exams. "I tell the Minister that I will go and do the examinations so as not to increase the embarrassment of the service. It is also so as not to leave to another a sum of 6 or 700 francs".<ref>Pasteur, letter of 8 May 1854 to his father, in Pasteur, ''Correspondence'', t. 1, Paris, 1940, p. 267. This episode in Pasteur's career is noted by Pierre-Yves Laurioz, ''Louis Pasteur. La réalité après la légende'', Paris, 2003, pp. 79–81. On Pasteur's attitude towards money, see Richard Moreau, ''La Préhistoire de Pasteur'', Paris, L'Harmattan, 2000, pp. 257–262.</ref>

In this same year 1854, he was named dean of the new faculty of sciences at [[University of Lille]], where he began his studies on fermentation.<ref name=Chirality /> It was on this occasion that Pasteur uttered his oft-quoted remark: "''dans les champs de l'observation, le hasard ne favorise que les esprits préparés''" ("In the field of observation, chance favors only the prepared mind").<ref>L. Pasteur, ''"Discours prononcé à Douai, le 7 décembre 1854, à l'occasion de l'installation solennelle de la Faculté des lettres de Douai et de la Faculté des sciences de Lille"'' (Speech delivered at Douai on 7 December 1854 on the occasion of his formal inauguration to the Faculty of Letters of Douai and the Faculty of Sciences of Lille), reprinted in: Pasteur Vallery-Radot, ed., ''Oeuvres de Pasteur'' (Paris, France: Masson and Co., 1939), vol. 7, [http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k7363q/f137.chemindefer p. 131] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120109090835/http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k7363q/f137.chemindefer |date=9 January 2012 }}.</ref>

In 1857, he moved to Paris as the director of scientific studies at the ''[[École Normale Supérieure]]'' where he took control from 1858 to 1867 and introduced a series of reforms to improve the standard of scientific work. The examinations became more rigid, which led to better results, greater competition, and increased prestige. Many of his decrees, however, were rigid and authoritarian, leading to two serious student revolts. During "the bean revolt" he decreed that a mutton stew, which students had refused to eat, would be served and eaten every Monday. On another occasion he threatened to expel any student caught smoking, and 73 of the 80 students in the school resigned.<ref name=Debre>{{cite book|last1=Debré|first1=Patrice|others= Translated by Elborg Forster|title=Louis Pasteur|year=2000|publisher=Johns Hopkins University Press|location=Baltimore|isbn=978-0-8018-6529-9|pages=119–120|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RzOcl-FLw30C&pg=PA119|access-date=27 January 2015}}</ref>

In 1863, he was appointed professor of geology, physics, and chemistry at the ''[[École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts]]'', a position he held until his resignation in 1867. In 1867, he became the chair of organic chemistry at the Sorbonne,<ref name="Debré & Patrice pp. 505-7">{{cite book |last1=Debré |first1=Patrice |translator-last=Forster |translator-first=Elborg |title=Louis Pasteur|date=2000 |publisher=JHU Press |location=Baltimore |isbn=978-0-8018-6529-9 |pages=505–507}}</ref> but he later gave up the position because of poor health.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Vallery-Radot|first1=René|translator-last=Devonshire|translator-first=R. L.|title=The Life of Pasteur|date=1919|publisher=Constable & Company|location=London|page=246|url=https://archive.org/stream/in.ernet.dli.2015.173907/2015.173907.The-Life-Of-Pasteur#page/n265/mode/2up}}</ref> In 1867, the École Normale's laboratory of physiological chemistry was created at Pasteur's request,<ref name="Debré & Patrice pp. 505-7" /> and he was the laboratory's director from 1867 to 1888.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |editor-last=Heilbron|editor-first=J. L.|title=Pasteur, Louis |encyclopedia=The Oxford Companion to the History of Modern Science |page=617|year=2003|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-974376-6 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=abqjP-_KfzkC&pg=PA617}}</ref> In Paris, he established the Pasteur Institute in 1887, in which he was its director for the rest of his life.<ref name=fein /><ref name="van">{{cite book|last1=Hook|first1=Sue Vander|url=https://archive.org/details/louispasteurgrou0000vand|title=Louis Pasteur: Groundbreaking Chemist & Biologist|publisher=ABDO Publishing Company|year=2011|isbn=978-1-61758-941-6|location=Minnesota|pages=[https://archive.org/details/louispasteurgrou0000vand/page/8 8]–112|url-access=registration}}</ref>