François Jacob (1920-2013) was a renowned French biologist and Nobel laureate. He was born on June 17, 1920, in Nancy, France. Jacob played an important role in the field of molecular biology, particularly in the study of genetics. He is specifically recognized for his groundbreaking work on the genetic control of enzyme and virus synthesis, which he conducted alongside Jacques Monod. Together, Jacob and Monod formulated the influential operon model, which explained how genes are regulated in bacteria. This discovery earned them the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1965. Throughout his career, François Jacob made numerous exceptional contributions to the understanding of gene expression and the control mechanisms of cellular processes. He continued to be an active and respected member of the scientific community until his death on April 19, 2013, in Paris, France.