Christian René Marie Joseph, Viscount de Duve was a renowned Belgian cytologist and biochemist who made groundbreaking discoveries in cell biology. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1974, alongside Albert Claude and George E. Palade, for their discoveries concerning the structural and functional organization of the cell. De Duve is credited with the serendipitous discovery of two cell organelles, the peroxisome and lysosome, and coined several scientific terms, including autophagy, endocytosis, and exocytosis.

Born in England to Belgian refugees during World War I, de Duve returned to Belgium with his family in 1920. He studied medicine at the Catholic University of Leuven and later pursued research in chemistry, focusing on insulin and diabetes mellitus. Throughout his career, he held positions at the University of Leuven and Rockefeller University in New York. In 1974, he founded the International Institute of Cellular and Molecular Pathology in Brussels, which was later renamed the de Duve Institute in his honor. De Duve received numerous awards and honors for his scientific contributions, including the rank of Viscount granted by King Baudouin of Belgium in 1989.

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