Pasteur was born in Dole, France and studied in Paris. Became famous for discovering in 1848 that there were two kinds of tartaric acid, and so discovering a new class of substances. He then became head of science at Lille University in 1854 and established that germs were the cause of fermentation and disease. He invented the process of pasteurisation. This heating process is used today to make milk safe to drink. Pasteur's discoveries inspired Joseph Lister's work in antiseptic surgery. Later, Pasteur went on to discover a vaccine for the deadly disease called rabies. The Institut Pasteur in Paris was established in 1888. Now there are Pasteur Institutes all over the world.
