Alfred Mathieu Giard

Giard was born in Valenciennes to grocer Alfred François Émile and Jeanne Henriette Mortamais.

In 1872 he defended his doctoral thesis with a study on compound ascidians titled "Recherches sur les ascidies composées ou synascidies".

From 1873 to 1882, he was professeur suppléant of natural history at the faculty of sciences in Lille, and in the meantime, was also affiliated with the Institut industriel du Nord.

In 1874 he founded a biological station at Wimereux in order to familiarize his students to marine and terrestrial organisms.

[3] Giard was influenced by the work of Ernst Haeckel, and considered Lamarckism and Darwinism to be complementary theories.

He is credited for providing a description of Giardia lamblia, a gastrointestinal protozoan parasite that is named after himself and Czech physician Vilem Dusan Lambl (1824–1895).