Achille Urbain

Achille Joseph Urbain (9 May 1884 – 5 December 1957) was a French biologist born in Le Havre.

In 1906 he obtained his degree from the national veterinary school at Lyon, afterwards attaining a bachelor's degree in natural sciences (1912) and a doctorate of sciences with a thesis involving plant physiology (1920) During his career, he worked in a military veterinary research laboratory, and in the meantime, conducted studies as a microbiologist and immunologist at the Pasteur Institute.

[1] In 1931 he resigned from military service, and in 1934 was appointed director of the Vincennes Zoo in Paris.

From 1942 to 1949, he was director of the Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle.

[1] In 1937 he scientifically described the kouprey, based on a young male individual captured in Preah Vihear Province, Cambodia.