Michèle de Saint Laurent

She spent most of her career at the Muséum national d'histoire naturelle in Paris, working on the systematics of decapod crustaceans; her major contributions were to hermit crabs and Thalassinidea, and she also co-described Neoglyphea, a living fossil discovered in 1975.

During the Second World War, Michèle's mother concealed British airmen from the Nazi regime, for which she was convicted in 1942 by a military tribunal and sent to Ravensbrück concentration camp, where she died in 1944.

[1] She started undertaking scientific research even before finishing her degree, during a term spent at the Institut Pasteur under Robert Deschiens, where she investigated the effect of iron salts on the molluscs that transmit schistosomiasis (also known as bilharzia or snail fever).

[1] The resulting paper brought her into contact with staff at the Muséum national d'histoire naturelle in Paris, where Jacques Forest suggested she study the larvae of hermit crabs.

[1] She was also involved in describing the hermit crabs of the Calypso expedition from the Atlantic coast of South America, and was on board the Jean Charcot and the Thalassa during their scientific voyages.