Bernard Pullman

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Bernard Pullman was born in Poland in 1919 and died in 1996. He was a theoretical and quantum chemist. He studied at the Sorbonne and then spend the years of the Second World War as an officer in Africa and the Middle East. Returning to Paris in 1946, he married Alberte Pullman. He completed his studies for the Licencie-es-Sciences in 1946 and Docteur-es-Science in 1948. He and his wife worked together for the rest of his life. Together they wrote several books including Quantum Biochemistry, Interscience Publishers, 1963. Their work in the 1950s and 1960s was the beginning of the new field of Quantum Biochemistry. They pioneered the application of quantum chemistry to predicting the carcinogenic properties of aromatic hydrocarbons.

From 1946 to 1954, he worked at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS). In 1954 he was appointed Professor at the Sorbonne. In 1959, he became Director of the Department of Quantum Biochemistry at the Institute de Biologie Physico-Chimique. From 1963, he was Director of the Institute. He retired in 1989.

After retiring he published The Atom in the History of Human Thought, Fayard Ed., Paris, 1995. The English translation was published in 1998 by Oxford Press.

He was a founding member of the International Academy of Quantum Molecular Science.