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Hungarian-born microbiologist’s name to be put on the Eiffel Tower!
The name of a Hungarian-born scientist who helped shape modern molecular biology will soon be engraved on one of the world’s most recognisable monuments. Ágnes Ullmann, an Erdély (Transylvania)-born microbiologist whose work laid key foundations in molecular genetics and immunology, has been selected as one of 72 female scientists to be honoured on the Eiffel Tower.
Hungarian scientist’s name on the Eiffel Tower
For more than a century, the tower’s first-floor frieze displayed the names of 72 eminent male scientists. Now, in an initiative led by the City of Paris, the Eiffel Tower operating company (SETE) and the association Femmes & Sciences, an equal number of women will be added in the same gold lettering and typography.
Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo said the move aims to “restore women to their rightful place” in the history of science and inspire future generations of girls to pursue careers in research and engineering.
From wartime Transylvania to the Pasteur Institute
Ullmann’s life story reads like a 20th-century European history lesson.
Born in 1927 in Szatmárnémeti (today Satu Mare, Romania) into a Hungarian Jewish family, she survived the Holocaust partly thanks to her schooling in Arad, Telex writes. As a teenager, she was inspired by Paul de Kruif’s Microbe Hunters, a birthday gift that sparked a lifelong fascination with Louis Pasteur and microbiology.
After finishing school in the turbulent post-war years, she studied first in Cluj (Kolozsvár) and later at Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest, graduating in chemistry in 1949. She began her research career under the renowned Hungarian biochemist Brunó Straub.
However, science in 1950s Hungary was constrained by Soviet ideology and the rejection of genetics. Ullmann later described reading French microbiologist Jacques Monod’s criticism of these doctrines as a “revelation” that changed her career path.
Daring escape and scientific breakthroughs
Her eventual move to France required both courage and ingenuity.
After short research visits to Paris, Ullmann and her husband orchestrated a risky escape from Hungary in 1960, hiding in a caravan’s storage compartment to cross the border. Once in Paris, she joined the prestigious Pasteur Institute: the very institution she had dreamed of since childhood.
There, Ullmann became one of the leading figures in molecular biology.
Earlier, she had already co-authored two papers in Nature on the antibiotic streptomycin. At the Pasteur Institute, working first with Nobel laureate Jacques Monod and later leading her own team, she helped define fundamental concepts including gene promoters, the lac operon, cyclic AMP and catabolite repression. Her research also clarified the mechanism of the pertussis (whooping cough) toxin, findings later used in experimental cancer immunotherapies.
In 2002, she received the prestigious Robert Koch Medal, one of microbiology’s highest international honours.
Teacher, mentor and role model
Beyond her laboratory achievements, Ullmann was widely respected as a mentor and educator. She served as scientific director at the Pasteur Institute and remained active well past retirement. A building on the institute’s campus was later named after her.
Hungarian colleagues remembered her as demanding but inspiring, with sharp intellect, dry humour and an exceptional ability to spot weaknesses in complex research plans.
She also maintained strong ties with Hungary, supporting cooperation between the Pasteur Institute and the University of Szeged and serving as an external member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.
Women scientists finally recognised
Ullmann is now among 72 women proposed for inclusion on the Eiffel Tower, alongside figures such as Marie Curie and Sophie Germain. The list spans more than 250 years of scientific history and covers a broad range of disciplines.
The organisers emphasise that the new names will appear under the same conditions as the original male scientists — on the first floor, in gold letters — symbolically correcting a long-standing imbalance.
To help preserve the legacy of these researchers, Paris has also invited the public to share documents, photographs or testimonies related to the women being honoured.
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Strong and intelligent woman, well deserved recognition among other great female scientists that finally get their recognition for amazing achievements in science.