Noël Bernard (botanist)

Noël Pierre Joseph León Bernard (* 13 March 1874 in Paris in 17th ; † 16 January 1911 in Saint-Benoît, Vienne) was an important French botanist who died when he was finally overcome with tuberculosis. Noël Bernard was known as the famous discoverer of the symbiotic germination of orchid seeds. He also discovered Phytoalexins which are antimicrobial and often antioxidative substances synthesized de novo by plants that accumulate rapidly at areas of pathogen infection.

His father was François Bernard, a wealthy cloth and textiles dealer/distributor based in Béziers in southern France, who moved to Paris and died when Bernard was 5 years old. His mother was Marie-Marguerite, who worked as a milliner to fund his studies. Bernard was considered an outstanding student while attending the Lycée Charlemagne later Lycée Condorcet senior high schools, both located in Paris, in preparation for entry to the Grandes Ecoles, of which he eventually gained entry to the grand school École Normale Supérieure. Bernard eventually gained a Bachelor of Science with Honours between 1895 and 1897 in Mathematics, Physics, Biology and Geology. Around the same time, he started giving lessons to repay his mothers debts, sometimes to royal families, e.g. Martha, Princess Bibesco, which was ironic as he considered himself an anarchist. In 1989, he prepared for the prestigious Agrégation Des Sciences Naturelles examination for selection of high school teachers. He shared first place with Charles Pérez, the future Professor of Zoology.

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