STRASBOURG, France – Pierre Chambon, a French molecular biologist who was hugely influential worldwide in the field of gene research, has died aged 95, the University of Strasbourg has announced.

Chambon was considered a pioneer in the study of fundamental aspects of how genes are structured, and made landmark discoveries in split genes and in how genes respond to hormones at the molecular level.

He authored nearly 1 000 scientific papers, making him among the most-cited scientists in the world. He won multiple awards and was elected to elite scientific academies in the United States and Sweden.

The University of Strasbourg, where Chambon had taught, described him as a “major figure of French and international science, a doctor, a biochemist and geneticist.”

The university added that he helped make the eastern French region where he was born, and where he carried out much of his research, “one of the top global locations for molecular biology.”