Speakers

Mitochondria

Chair - J. Deutsch, UPMC, Paris, France
A. Tzagoloff, Columbia University, New York City, USA
D.C. Wallace, University of California, Irvine, USA
P. Golik, University of Warsaw, Poland
G. Burger, University of Montréal, Canada

RNA

Chair - F. Michel, CGM, Gif-sur-Yvette, France
A.M. Lambowitz, University of Texas, Austin, USA
R. Schroeder, Max F. Perutz Institute, Vienna, Austria
J. Beggs, University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom
A. Ephrussi, EMBL, Heidelberg, Germany

Genomes

Chair - A. Goffeau, Université de Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium
B. Dujon, UPMC and Institut Pasteur , Paris, France
R. Rothstein, Columbia University, New York City, USA
M. Johnston, University of Colorado at Denver, USA
A. Danchin, Génopole Evry, Paris, France

Closing remarks

J.-F. Bach, Permanent Secretary of the Académie des Sciences, Paris, France

Detailed program

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Organising committee

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Piotr Slonimski biography

Piotr Slonimski, November 9th, 1922 - April 25th, 2009

Known to everybody as "Piotr", he began his studies in medicine during the Second World War at the "underground university" in Warsaw and when this was forced to close, he completed his medical studies at the Jagiellonian University of Krakow, graduating in 1946.

After the war, he moved to France to work with Boris Ephrussi, where he began his work with yeast, studying the "petite" mutants. This was the beginning of Piotr's studies of mitochondria, which would occupy the major part of his career. During this time he laid the foundations of mitochondrial genetics and pioneered the study of mitochondrial biogenesis.

In the late 1980s, Piotr was a fervent advocate of the European Yeast Genome Sequencing project; in 2009 it is difficult to remember how controversial this project was and Piotr's reputation and personality were crucial to the successful launch of the project and the subsequent transformation of modern biology.

Piotr received many honors and prizes for his work and remained deeply committed to research all his life; although he officially retired in 1991, his enthusiasm for research never diminished, his last article was published in 2009 and others were being written when he died.

Finally, Piotr exercised enormous influence as a teacher, revolutionizing the teaching of Genetics in France and was responsible for the training of generations of students. He will be much missed by all his friends and colleagues, and the wider Yeast community.

Christopher Herbert

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