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Ernest Schoffeniels (Liège, Belgium: May 11,1927—July 27,1992)

Professor Ernest Schoffeniels, head of the Laboratory of General and Comparative Biochemistry at the University of Liège, died accidentally during his 65th year, a month before reaching retirement. As a game of destiny, he was crushed by anaphylactic shock caused by the sting of a bee. His disappearance represents a great loss for the scientific community in general and for the University of Liège in particular. Ernest Schoffeniels carried out his studies at the University of Liège after the Second World War. Very early he demonstrated his interest for biological research and his first publications were devoted to the systematics of insects and the uptake and distribution of calcium and phosphorus in invertebrates. Ironically, his first paper—in 1945—concerned the swarming of bees, a species that would ultimately cause his death. During that period he decided to complete his training by entering the Medical School from which he graduated in 1953. In 1951 and again in 1955 he stayed at the University of Copenhagen in the Laboratory of Biological Chemistry, where he studied, in collaboration with Professor Ussing, the trans-epithelial transport of ions and its role in the genesis of membrane potentials. This was the real start of his scientific carrier, which was mostly devoted to the analysis of bioelectrogenesis. From 1955 to 1958 and again in 1961-62 he stayed in the laboratory of Professor Nachmansohn, at the Columbia University of New York, first as a Research Associate and then as an Assistant Professor. The acquaintance between these two great scientists started a period of new waves in understanding the molecular basis of bioelectrogenesis in general and the behaviour of the sodium channel in particular. During that period he established the electroplax of the electric eel as a model for the study of bio-electricity. His results favoured the chemical mechanisms against the electrical hypothesis in the neurotransmission, and allowed him to suggest that the transport of sodium across the electric membrane during the action potential could be an energy-consuming process. After these fruitful stays abroad he developed his own laboratory in Liège, where active research was carried on from the sixties until now on various topics related to the neurosciences and to the membrane transport of ions and small molecules. Major themes considered in this laboratory included the biochemical mechanisms underlying the production of the action potential in neurons or in electric organs of fishes, the role of vitamin B1 in the control of the electrical activity of the brain, the neuro-endocrinean mechanisms controlling reproductive behaviour, and the molecular neuron-glia interactions, with other topics more directly related to clinical questions such as the biochemical analysis of epilepsy or the study of pathological aspects of intestinal absorption. Under his enthusiastic leadership, the many collaborators who worked in his laboratory produced an important contribution to science with more than 450publications. This intense activity in Liège did not prevent him from pursuing various international collaborations. In 1968 he was a Visiting Professor at Duke University in Durham (NC) USA and he became Adjunct Professor at this University from 1969 till 1973.During that period he both managed and directed the Marine Membrane Physiology Laboratory of Duke University in Beaufort (NC). This was the occasion of intensive research on membrane permeability in relation with osmo-regulation in invertebrate species. He also visited many other universities abroad and gave countless conferences in Europe, the USA, and several Asian countries. He was recently invited to present a series of lectures at the College de France in Paris on "The System of Comparative Biochemistry". Ernest Schoffeniels was a member of many Belgian and international scientific societies, including the International Society for Neuro-chemistry, the Society for Experimental Biology, the Biochemical Society of London and the New York Academy of Sciences. He obtained many honours and scientific awards and was a member of the Belgian Royal Academy of Medicine. He was on the editorial board of many scientific journals, such as Life Sciences, the Journal of Molecular Evolution, la Revue Canadienne de Biologie, Bio-electrochemistry and Bioenergetics, Biosystems, Neurochemistry International, Molecular Engineering. He was also the founder and co-director of Biochemical Systematics and Ecology, the founder and president of the International Society for Biochemical Systematics and a co-director of the Archives internationales de Physiologie et de Biochimie. His very active career leaves as a testimony a long list of publications with more than 300 titles. He was also the author of 20 books, including Molecular Basis and Thermodynamics of Bioelectrogenesis (Kluwer, 1990) in the series Topics in Molecular Organization and Engineering. But Schoffeniels also contributed to the world of ideas as a philosopher by publishing l'Anti Hasard (Anti-chance), a response to Monod's Chance and Necessity. In this book, he presents the origin of life and evolution of organisms in an over-deterministic approach, in which chance has no place. He argues that all physico-chemical processes are determined according to the principle of causality, and that biological systems are not spared by this basic rule. He stresses the fact that classical thermodynamics is inadequate to explain biological systems, and uses information theory to describe them in a more appropriate manner. This book was a best-seller and was translated into English, Spanish, Italian, German and Japanese. In the latest part of his life, Schoffeniels devoted much of his time to the issues regarding the origin of life and evolution of organisms, as well as to the relations between science and ethics. He was in the process of finishing a new book summarising these ideas: Pour un Matérialisme Serein. Besides his passion for science and philosophy, he was also a great lover of modern art. In particular, as a President of the APIAW, he took an active role in organising painting and sculpture exhibitions in Liege. In that sense, he was a true humanist of the 20th Century. As friends of him, we cannot conclude this brief notice without mentioning the outstanding personality of the man; the most obvious feature anyone who has ever met Ernest Schoffeniels certainly remembers is his incredible enthusiasm, sense of humour and incredible optimism. In the scientific or financial difficulties that are inevitably encountered in the life of a researcher, he was always there to minimise problems and to pretend loud and clear that the problems could be resolved. His broadness of mind, his critical judgement, but also his jolly sense of life, will be remembered. He will be sorely missed.

→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→Jacques Balthazart and Thierry Grisar →→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→   Laboratory of General and Comparative Biochemistry University of Liège →→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→ Liège, Belgium, August 1992 →→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→ (Revised by Jean Maruani, Executive Editor of MolecularEngineering)