Luc Montagnier
French virologist
Died when: 89 years 174 days (1073 months)Star Sign: Leo
Luc Montagnier (US: /?m?nt?n'je?, ?mo?nt??n'je?/;US: /m?n'-/, French: [m?~ta?je]; 18 August 1932 – 8 February 2022) was a French virologist and joint recipient, with Françoise Barré-Sinoussi and Harald zur Hausen, of the 2008 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his discovery of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).
He worked as a researcher at the Pasteur Institute in Paris and as a full-time professor at Shanghai Jiao Tong University in China.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Montagnier promoted the conspiracy theory that SARS-CoV-2, the causative virus, was deliberately created and escaped from a laboratory.
Such a claim has been rejected by other virologists.He has been criticised by other academics for using his Nobel prize status to "spread dangerous health messages outside his field of knowledge".