Professor Emeritus of Biophysics at the Universities of Paris VI and Jerusalem.
Previous Head of the Dept. of Biophysics, Hotel-Dieu Hospital, Paris.
Director of Research at the EHESS (Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales) in Paris.
Previous Member of the French National Committee of Ethics for Health and Life Sciences
Awards
- “Personnalite de l’annee, 1982, dans le monde des sciences” from the French organization “La Distinction Internationale”
- Chevalier de la Legion d’Honneur, Paris, 1984.
- Officier dans l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, Paris, 1984.
- Officier dans l’Ordre National du Merite, Paris, 1992.
- Prize of the Italian Senate , Piu Manzu Intnl. Research Center, Verucchio, Italy, 1999
- Doctorate Honoris Causa, University of Montreal, 2000
Author of a theory of complexity and self-organization, numerous works in cell biology and immunology, artificial intelligence, and philosophy of biology.
A transdisciplinary meeting “about his work” was held in Cerisy (France) and the proceedings were published in 1991.
Publications
More than two hundred articles in the following fields, in specialized journals or books:
I. Biological-Physicochemistry, Thermodynamics, Information Theory and Artificial Intelligence. Cellular biology and immunology.
II. Cell Biology ( Ageing, ion transport).
III. General Physiology, Radiation Biology and Medical Imaging.
IV. Philosophy and Anthropology.
Books
1. L'organisation biologique et la théorie de l'information, Hermann, Paris, 1972, 1992.
2. Entre le cristal et la fumée, Essai sur l’organisation du vivant. Seuil, Paris,1979,(translations: italian, spanish, portuguese, japanese, chinese).
3. A tort et à raison, Intercritique de la science et du mythe. Seuil, Paris, 1986 (Prize Psyché, Paris,1987 ; translations: english (Enlightenment to enlightenment, Intercritique of Science and Myth. New York, SUNY Press,1993), spanish , portuguese, italian, danish,japanese, hebrew ).
4. Tout, non, peut-être. Education et vérité. Seuil, Paris,1991,(translations: italian, portuguese).
5. Questions de vie. Entre le savoir et l'opinion (Entretiens recueillis par C. Bousquet) Seuil, Paris,1994,(translations: portuguese, spanish).
6. La fin du tout génétique? Nouveaux paradigmes en biologie, INRA Editions, Paris, 1999
7. Les Etincelles de hasard. T. I: Connaissance spermatique, Seuil, Paris,1999,
( hebrew translation under way)
8. La science est-elle inhumaine ?Essai sur la libre necessite, Bayard Presse, Paris, 2002.
In collaboration
Sigal, R., Doyon, D., Halimi, P., Atlan, H. Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Basis for Interpretation. Springer Verlag, Berlin-Heidelberg, 102 pp. (1988).
Atlan, H. and Cohen, I.R. (Eds.). Theories of Immune Networks. Springer Verlag, Berlin-Heidelberg (1989).
Les théories de la complexite. Autour de l'oeuvre de H. Atlan. Ed. F. Fogelman-Soulie, Seuil, Paris (1991).
Atlan,H. Augé,M., Delmas-Marty,M., R.-P., & Fresco,N.,Le clonage humain ,Seuil, Paris, 1999 (translations: greek, chinese, under way)