(30.03.2020)

The founder and director of Institut Hospitalo-Universitaire, or IHU, in Marseille, the 68-year-old Raoult has compiled a sometimes dazzling, sometimes disturbing career that could have been scripted by Marcel Pagnol or Honoré de Balzac. Born in Senegal, Raoult defied his father, who was serving there as a military doctor, and quit high school in his junior year. Signing up with the French merchant marine, the young Raoult spent the next two years at sea.