During his lifetime, René Dubos held more than 35 honorary degrees (including three honorary MDs) from universities in this country, Canada, and abroad. As a microbiologist and experimental pathologist, he first demonstrated—some 40 years ago—that germ-fighting drugs can be extracted from microbes. Also an award-winning author, his lectures and books have alerted an international audience to the physico-chemical, biological, and social effects that environmental forces exert on all forms of life. This interest in the effects of the total environment placed Dr. Dubos in the forefront of ecological studies on both the sociomedical problems of underprivileged communities and the results of affluence in industrialized countries. His more than 20 books have been translated into many languages. So Human an Animal won the Pulitzer Prize in 1969; Beast or Angel: Choices that Make Us Human was published in 1974 to wide acclaim.
René J. Dubos