Louis Pasteur's public engagement

Abstract

Concern with public engagement by scientists and doctors is nothing new, but one of its consummate early practitioners was born 200 years ago. Louis Pasteur (1822–95) was not a natural communicator with ordinary people from the wider community. Shy and reserved, he was happiest when he was working in the laboratory, but he was deeply committed to the value of science in human affairs and used his own research to further that message. He was also intensely and successfully ambitious, both for himself and his family, and for the scientific ideas he espoused.