French scientist Luc Montagnier, who won the Nobel prize for medicine for his co-discovery of the HIV virus that causes AIDS, has died aged 89, the mayor of the Paris suburb where he was hospitalised said Thursday.
Montagnier died on Tuesday in the American Hospital in Neuilly-sur-Seine northwest of the centre of Paris, its mayor Jean-Christophe Fromantin told AFP. Fromantin said he was in possession of the death certificate.
Montagnier shared the 2008 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with his colleague Francoise Barre-Sinoussi for their “discovery of human immunodeficiency virus” (HIV), which causes AIDS.
But he was sidelined by the scientific community in later years as he took up positions judged to be increasingly outlandish, notably against vaccines.
His pariah status only increased during the Covid-19 pandemic when he claimed the virus was laboratory-made and that vaccines were responsible for the appearance of variants.
Reports of Montagnier’s death had been circulating online over the previous 24 hours, but AFP was not immediately able to get them confirmed as his family did not speak to major news organisations, while the main research bodies he belonged to said they were unable to confirm his death.
This unusual lack of information surrounding such a well-known figure appeared to be a reflection of Montagnier’s recent standing in the scientific community.
A former star among French researchers, he had lost their support over the past decade over positions they felt they could not share.