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Jean Lavorel (1928–2021): a great scientist, a model of integrity

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Abstract

This paper is a tribute to a great scientist and an authentic “honest man” that was Jean Lavorel (1928–2021). He was a pioneer in research on the primary events of photosynthesis in algae, plants, and photosynthetic bacteria. He focused his attention on chlorophyll fluorescence and luminescence, and also on oxygen evolution, both experimentally (with laboratory-built refined apparatus) and theoretically. Many of his results are classical now. Besides a survey of his main achievements, most of them obtained by him alone, different reminiscences on the researcher and the person he was illustrate the rich personality of Jean Lavorel.

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Acknowledgements

I first thank the editors of this journal, Robert Blankenship and G. Govindjee, for having invited me to write this tribute to Jean Lavorel, a great researcher, a moral reference, and a friend; I am also indebted to Govindjee for his constructive reading of my draft. Most of Lavorel’s colleagues, and even students, are now retired and some, sadly, deceased, so I was able to collect only a limited number of reactions. Among those who came forward after his death, are Pierre Joliot, his first contact, Ismael Moya and Pierre Sebban, his former students, André Verméglio, who completed my knowledge of his work at Cadarache, Jaap Haveman, who was a post-doc with him, G. Govindjee, already mentioned, and Gyözö Garab (who is also to write an article on Jean for Photosynthetica). Many have sent me their vivid memories, reproduced above. My deepest gratitude goes to Véronique Lavorel, daughter of Jean and Marie-Jo Lavorel, who shared with me many key pieces of information, but also many details about her father’s life and the multiple facets of his rich and complex personality. It was due to her that I was able to give a soul to this tribute.

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  1. Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Gif-sur-Yvette campus, 7A rue Alphonse Pécard, 91190, Gif-sur-Yvette, France

    Yaroslav de Kouchkovsky

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  1. Yaroslav de Kouchkovsky
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Correspondence to Yaroslav de Kouchkovsky.

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de Kouchkovsky, Y. Jean Lavorel (1928–2021): a great scientist, a model of integrity. Photosynth Res 151, 205–211 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11120-021-00876-6

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