Ernest Fourneau

{{Short description|French scientist (1872–1949)}}

{{Expand French|topic=bio|date=May 2011|Ernest Fourneau}}

{{Infobox scientist

| name = Ernest Fourneau

| image = Jean-Claude Fourneau. Portrait d'Ernest Fourneau.jpg

| image_size = 175px

| caption = Portrait of Ernest Fourneau
by his son Jean-Claude Fourneau

| birth_date = {{Birth date|1872|10|4|df=y}}

| birth_place = Biarritz, France

| nationality = French

| death_date = {{death date and age|1949|8|5|1872|10|4|df=y}}

| death_place = Ascain, France

| field = Chemistry, Pharmacology

| work_institution = Pasteur Institute

| alma_mater = École de pharmacie de Paris

| doctoral_advisor =

| doctoral_students =

| known_for =

| prizes = Prix Jecker, of the Académie des Sciences (1919 and 1931)

| religion =

| footnotes = {{center|Son-in-law of Paul Segond
Brother-in-law of Marc Tiffeneau
Father of Jean-Claude Fourneau}}

| notable_students = Thérèse Tréfouël, Jacques Tréfouël

}}

Ernest Fourneau (4 October 1872 – 5 August 1949) was a French pharmacist who graduated in 1898 for the Paris university specialist in medicinal chemistry and pharmacology. He played a major role in the discovery of synthetic local anesthetics such as amylocaine, as well as in the synthesis of suramin. He authored more than two hundred scholarly works, and has been described as having "helped to establish the fundamental laws of chemotherapy that have saved so many human lives".[http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G2-2830901490.html "Fourneau, Ernest"]. Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography, 2008.Henry, T. A., [http://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlelanding/1952/jr/jr9520000261 "Ernest Fourneau". 1872–1949]. J. Chem. Soc., 1952, pp. 261–272.

Fourneau was a pupil of Friedel and Moureu, and studied in the German laboratories of Ludwig Gattermann in Heidelberg, Hermann Emil Fischer in Berlin and Richard Willstätter in Munich.

He headed the research laboratory of Poulenc Frères in Ivry-sur-Seine from 1903 to 1911.

One of the products was a synthetic local anesthetic that was named Stovaine (amylocaine).

This was a pun on the English translation of "fourneau" as "stove".{{sfn|Lesch|2007|p=124}} (The same pun was used in the brand name of the drug acetarsol, Stovarsol.)

Other important medicines were antipyretics.{{sfn|Michel|2016|p=7}}

In 1910 Fourneau accepted the directorship of the Pasteur Institute's medical chemistry section, with the condition that he maintained his ties with Poulenc Frères.{{sfn|Lesch|2007|p=124}} He recruited Germaine Benoit to work in the Institute as a new graduate.{{Cite web|title=Germaine Benoit (1901-1983) - Notice biographique|url=https://webext.pasteur.fr/archives/beg0.html|access-date=2022-01-21|website=webext.pasteur.fr}}

He was a member of the Académie Nationale de Médecine.