Death of a giant of medicine

Just a few weeks ago, he celebrated his 100th birthday. And until 2020, he kept regular hours at the Salk Institute, in San Diego, Ca., where he'd worked most of his career. Roger Guillemin, a Université de Montréal medical graduate and winner of the 1977 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, died on Feb. 21 in Del Mar, Ca.

Born in France in 1924, Roger Guillemin began his medical studies in Lyon. In 1953, he defended his doctoral thesis at UdeM under the supervision of endocrinologist Hans Selye, a professor in  the Faculty of Medicine and a researcher renowned throughout the scientific world for his work on stress.

From 1970 onwards, Roger Guillemin taught at the Salk Institute, where he helped set up the Neuroendocrinology Laboratory. It was here that he undertook his seminal work on peptide hormone production in the brain, for which he was awarded the Nobel.

In 1979, in recognition of his contribution to medical research, Université de Montréal awarded Guillemin an honorary doctorate. And to mark the 40th anniversary of his Nobel, UdeM named the room where the University Assembly holds its sessions after him. At its entrance, a plaque commemorates the man, considered one of the world's most influential scientists.