Monod as the founder of a new discipline: Local and international contexts

Monod gained stature as an experimentalist and theorist as well as a discipline builder. The essay reviews the intimate connection of the intellectual and institutional projects in his career. A brief comparison with the development of the new science of molecular biology across the English Channel highlights the commonalities and specificities of the disciplinary projects in France and Britain and the role that individuals like Monod played in their formation. The article argues that there was not a single path that led to the rise of molecular biology. Rather individual initiatives and historical contingencies very much shaped local outcomes.