He published more than 500 papers in a variety of disciplines including biochemistry, physical chemistry, psychology, and physiology.
Victor Henri's parents were Aleksandra Viktorovna Lyapunova and Nikolay Alexandrovich Krylov, who were not married.
In 1891, Henri entered the Sorbonne University in Paris, where he received an education in mathematics and, later, in Natural Sciences.
Henri was awarded two Ph.D. degrees: first in psychology in 1897 at the University of Göttingen, and second, in physical chemistry in 1903 in Paris.
[4] In 1930, he was appointed full professor of physical chemistry at the University of Liège (Belgium).
In common with several other researchers around 1900, Henri studied invertase, an enzyme that catalyses the hydrolysis of sucrose to glucose and fructose, with a view to deriving a general rate law for enzymes.
Following this, and inspired by discussions with German physical chemist Max Bodenstein, Henri published the fundamental equation of enzyme kinetics for the first time.
It took about ten years before biochemists realized the full significance of this equation.
In particular, Henri's work was extended by the German biochemist Leonor Michaelis and the Canadian physician Maud Menten.
In a seminal paper in 1913, they derived the equation in more detail and interpreted it more profoundly.
= 0 would lead to simpler and more easily interpretable results, and thus paved the way for general applications.
[9] Serge Nicolas wrote a comprehensive biographical article (in French) on Henri,[1] and a recent discussion of Henri's place in the history of enzyme kinetics, including an English translation of his thesis, is available.