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In Memoriam Professor Henri-Charles Dubourguier

6.02.1948 - 11.03. 2010

Professor Henri-Charles Dubourguier undoubtedly was the Ambassador of French research, culture, culinary science and gallantry in the Estonian University of Life Sciences (EMU) and in Estonia on a broader scale. He had the ability to see and treasure the assets in Estonia that a conventional Estonian was too rusty to perceive.

 

Prof. Henri-Charles Dubourguier was born in 1948. He graduated from the National Institute of Applied Sciences (France) as a biologist and biochemist in 1972. He obtained his PhD in biochemistry in 1977 (University of Clermont-Ferrand), the Diploma of Microbiology (1975) and the Diploma of Immunology (1976) in Pasteur Institute of Paris.


Between 1972 and 1981 he worked in INRA-Theix on neonatal bacterial and viral diseases in animals and was the inventor of a vaccine (French, European and US patents).


Between 1981 and 1988, he worked in INRA-Lille on the microbiology of anaerobic ecosystems and its consequences for engineering of industrial scale anaerobic digesters. Between 1988 and 1993, he led a team working on physiology and genetics of anaerobic bacteria in the University of Lille.
Since 1993, he was involved in the “Institut Supérieur d´Agriculture “ of Lille in environmental research with industrial and public partners, particularly on bioremediation and mobility of organic and inorganic pollutants in soils for the remediation of large former industrial polluted sites. For 17 years he was also involved with the area of ecotoxicology, bioavailability and microbial sensors due to collaboration with KBFI. In 2004 Professor Henri-Charles Dubourguier was awarded the title of Doctor Honoris Causa of the Estonian University of Life Sciences (Tartu) for promoting cooperation between EMU and different institutions in France. Since 2006 worked as a professor at the EMU and in 2007, when the Unit of Bioconversion of Crops and Wastes was established, he became the head of the unit.


In 2008 Prof. H.C. Dubourguier moved to Estonia altogether and continued as a Professor in the EMU and a Leading Scientist in the National Institute of Chemical Physics and Biophysics (NICPB, Tallinn) in the group of Dr. Anne Kahru.

He published more than 80 articles in peer-reviewed journals. He supervised the defense of 20 MSc and 17 

PhD theses and was supervising four PhD students at the EMU. Prof. H.C. Dubourguier was involved in a large number of international research projects. He led a Socrates Intensive program for eight years.

Prof. H.C. Dubourguier was also expert for the French Ministry of Education and Research (teaching curricula and research proposals), the French National Agency for Research (research proposals). He also reviewed submitted papers for various scientific peer-reviewed journals and evaluated FP6 reports for the European Commission. He contributed in OSIRIS, an EU project, to assist scientific activities of NICPB and he was particularly interested in reviewing the strategy and the analysis of the toxicological data in the relevant literature published in Russian in the former Soviet Union and Russia and validating ecotoxicological testing (involving luminescent bacterial assays).

With his day-to-day activities Prof Dubourguier increased the visibility and competence of the EMU in such essential fields as environmental protection, renewable energetics, sustainable development, internationalisation of studies, etc. Prof Dubourguier played a leading role in the initiation of many international seminars, cooperation and research projects.

Henri-Charles will be remembered as a close and loyal friend, colleague and scholar whose absence makes it difficult to move on. He will be sadly missed by many of us whose lives were enriched and took on a new meaning through what he gave and taught us.