Achille le bel (1847-1930), un chimiste innovant tenu à l’écart par ses pairs

The history of chemistry records that two chemists, the Frenchman Achille Le Bel and the Dutchman Jacobus Van't Hoff (1852-1911), were the co-founders of modern stereochemistry for having proposed the theory of molecular asymmetry separately and without any consultation in 1874. Fourteen years after his discovery, Le Bel decided to seek the recognition of his French colleagues by applying to the Académie des Sciences, and thus obtain a deserved reputation. For his part, Van't Hoff received the fruits of his discovery by obtaining professorships at major universities in Amsterdam and Charlottenburg, and the first Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1901. For Le Bel, after eight unsuccessful applications to the Institute, the term 'rejected' may be applied. The weight of the networks in place in the scientific institutions of the time and also clashes within the French chemists contributed to these failures. When he was finally elected in 1929, Le Bel bore the brunt of the tensions within the national scientific world.