Théodore Monod

{{Short description|French naturalist and explorer (1902–2000)}} {{Infobox person | name = Théodore Monod | image = Famous French scientist, Théodore Monod, in the Sahara Desert, 1967.jpg | birth_date = {{Birth date|1902|04|09|df=y}} | birth_place = Rouen, Normandy, France | death_date = {{Death date and age|2000|11|22|1902|04|09|df=y}} | death_place = Versailles, Yvelines, France }} '''Théodore André Monod''' (9 April 1902 – 22 November 2000) was a French naturalist, humanist, scholar and explorer.

==Early life and education == Monod was the son of Wilfred Monod, a pastor of l'Oratoire du Louvre, which Theodore also attended.<ref name=MP /> Monad attended the ''Lycée Pierre Corneille'' in Rouen.<ref name="LyCo6">[http://lgcorneille-lyc.spip.ac-rouen.fr/spip.php?article6 Lycée Pierre Corneille de Rouen - History]</ref> as well as the École alsacienne, and obtained a doctorate in science from Sorbonne University in 1922.<ref name=MP>[https://museeprotestant.org/en/notice/theodore-monod-1902-2000/ "Théodore Monod (1902-2000)"]. museeprotestant.org. Retrieved 24 February 2023.</ref><ref name="The New York Times">[https://www.nytimes.com/2000/11/25/world/theodore-monod-sahara-loving-naturalist-dies-at-98.html "Theodore Monod, Sahara-Loving Naturalist, Dies at 98"]. nytimes.com. Retrieved 24 February 2023.</ref>

He co-founded a Protestant Order of people who pray, named ‘’les Veilleurs’’ (the Watchers) and wrote a prayer book for the order.<ref name=MP />

==Exploration==

His first job was as an assistant in the Ichtyology department at ''Muséum national d'histoire naturelle'' in Paris.<ref name=MP />

He began his career in Africa with the study of monk seals on Mauritania's Cap Blanc peninsula. However, he soon turned his attention to the Sahara Desert, which he would survey for more than sixty years in search of meteorites. Though he failed to find the meteorite he sought, he discovered numerous plant species as well as several important Neolithic sites. Perhaps his most important find (together with Wladimir Besnard) was the Asselar man, a 6,000-year-old skeleton of the Adrar des Ifoghas that many scholars believe to be the first remains of a distinctly black person. In the early 1960s he discovered the caravan wreck site at Ma'adin Ijafen.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CU4lAnmnUhUC&q=%22Ma%27den+Ijafen%22+monod&pg=PA114|title=Red Gold of Africa: Copper in Precolonial History and Culture|last=Herbert|first=Eugenia W.|date=2003|publisher=Univ of Wisconsin Press|isbn=9780299096045|language=en}}</ref><ref name=":1">{{Cite journal|last1=Christie|first1=A. C.|last2=Haour|first2=A.|date=2018-08-01|title=The 'Lost Caravan' of Ma'den Ijafen Revisited: Re-appraising Its Cargo of Cowries, a Medieval Global Commodity|journal=Journal of African Archaeology|volume=16|issue=2|pages=125–144|url=https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/67121/1/Accepted_manuscript.pdf|language=en|doi=10.1163/21915784-20180008|s2cid=165759202 }}</ref>

He founded the ''Institut fondamental d’Afrique noire'' in Senegal. He became a member of the ''Académie des sciences d'outre-mer'' in 1949, member of the ''Académie de marine'' in 1957 and member of the ''Académie des sciences'' in 1963. He was a charter member of the ''World Academy of Art and Science''.<ref>{{cite web |url= https://worldacademy.org/charter-members/ |title= Charter Members |author= |date= |website= World Academy of Art and Science |publisher= |access-date= July 22, 2025 |quote=}}</ref>

==Scientific work== The scientific bibliography of Théodore Monod includes more than 700 works on topics - from his thesis subject, the Gnathiidae (a family of parasitic Isopoda), to the subject that he held close to his heart until his death: the Scaridae, which he published on in 1994 in collaboration with Canadian research scientist Andrea Bullock.<ref>{{cite web |url= https://sfi-cybium.fr/en/cybium/1994/18/2 |title= Cybium 18(2), April 1994 |author= |date= |website= SFI Cybium |publisher= |access-date= July 22, 2025 |quote=}}</ref>

Monod discovered and gave his name to 30 species of insects and plants, 50 crustaceans and several fish.<ref name="The Telegraph"/>

==Private life and activism==

He subsequently became the founding president of the Francophone Unitarian Association (1986-1990), the first openly Unitarian religious organization established in France. The association merged with the Fraternal Assembly of Christian Unitarians in 1996.<ref>{{cite web |url= https://www.sydneyunitarianchurch.org/SUN_20170730.pdf |title= Newsletter; August-September 2017 |author= |date= |website= Sydney Unitarian Church |publisher= |access-date= July 22, 2025 |quote=}}</ref>

Monod was also politically active, taking part in pacifist and antinuclear protests until only some months before his death. He wrote several articles and books that adumbrated the emerging environmentalist movement. He described himself as a Christian anarchist.<ref name="The Telegraph">{{cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1375545/Theodore-Monod.html|title=Theodore Monod obituary | location=London | work=The Daily Telegraph|date=24 November 2000}}</ref>

In 1970, he led an International Committee for the Defence of Ernest Ouandié during his trial; the Cameroonian revolutionary was executed on the orders of the regime.<ref>{{cite web |url= https://histoirecamerounfrance.com/2023/01/05/1970-arrestation-de-mgr-ndongmo-et-de-ouandie/ |title= 1970: arrestation de Mgr Ndongmo et d'Ernest Ouandié |author= |date= January 5, 2023 |website= Histoire Cameroun France |publisher= |access-date= July 22, 2025 |quote=}}</ref>

Monod was the great-grandson of Frédéric Monod. He shared a common ancestor with biologist Jacques Monod, the musician Jacques-Louis Monod, the politician Jérôme Monod and director Jean-Luc Godard.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.adherents.com/people/pg/Jean_Luc_Godard.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051226215837/http://www.adherents.com/people/pg/Jean_Luc_Godard.html |url-status=usurped |archive-date=26 December 2005 |title=The religion of director Jean-Luc Godard |publisher=Adherents.com |access-date=29 December 2011}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ordiecole.com/cinema/godard_monod.html |title=Jean Monod (1765–1836), pasteur |publisher=Ordiecole.com |access-date=29 December 2011 |archive-date=4 March 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304195034/http://www.ordiecole.com/cinema/godard_monod.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

Monod was a strict vegetarian who advocated for animal rights.<ref name="The Telegraph"/> He never touched alcohol, meat or tobacco.<ref name="The New York Times"/> He once walked 600 miles in the Sahara to prove that he had sufficient stamina without eating meat.<ref name="The Telegraph"/>

Monod was married to Olga Pickova and they had three children.<ref name=MP />

==Selected works== Works re-edited and released by Actes Sud (Arles): *''Méharées'', (Paris, 1937), rééd. 1989. *''L'Émeraude des garamantes'', (éditions de L'Harmattan, Paris, 1984), rééd. 1992. *''L'Hippopotame et le philosophe'', rééd. 1993. *''Désert lybique'', éditions Arthaud, 1994. *''Majâbat Al-Koubrâ'', Actes Sud, 1996. *''Maxence au désert'', Actes Sud, Arles, 1995. *''Tais-toi et marche ...'', exploration journal from El Ghallaouya-Aratane-Chinguetti, Actes Sud, 2002.

==Awards== *1960 Patrons's Medal of the Royal Geographical Society for his work in the Sahara.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.rgs.org/NR/rdonlyres/C5962519-882A-4C67-803D-0037308C756D/0/GoldMedallists18322011.pdf| title=List of Past Gold Medal Winners|publisher= Royal Geographical Society|accessdate = 24 August 2015}}</ref>

==Authority name== {{botanist|Monod}}

==Notes== {{reflist}}

==References== *This article began as a translation of the corresponding article at the French Wikipedia, accessed 17 December 2005.

== External links == {{Commons category}} * [http://www.monachus-guardian.org/mguard07/07intnew.htm Obituary at monachus-guardian.org] * [http://www.webafriqa.net/library/ifan/monod.html webAfriqa - Théodore Monod, fondateur-directeur de l'IFAN] * [http://www.moncelon.fr/desertenverite.htm Théodore Monod (French language)] * [http://www.persee.fr/web/revues/home/prescript/article/chris_0753-2776_2001_num_70_1_2274 "Un exceptionel naturtaliste eclectique"], ''Autres Temps,'' 2001, vol. 70 issue 70, pp. 25–38

{{DEFAULTSORT:Monod, Theodore}} Category:1902 births Category:2000 deaths Category:20th-century anarchists Category:20th-century French zoologists Category:Christian anarchists Category:Christian humanists Category:French anarchists Category:French carcinologists Category:French Christian pacifists Category:French explorers Category:French explorers of Africa Category:French naturalists Category:French Protestants Category:French Unitarians Category:French vegetarianism activists Category:Lycée Pierre-Corneille alumni Category:Members of the French Academy of Sciences Category:National Museum of Natural History (France) people Category:Scientists from Rouen Category:Signatories of the Manifesto of the 121