Luc Montagnier

Luc Montagnier (born 1932) is a French virologist. He discovered the AIDS virus HIV, then encountered international disdain (see AIDS reappraisal) after declaring in 1990 that HIV cannot cause AIDS on its own, but needed a cofactor which he believes is a mycoplasma.

His research was done at the Pasteur Institute in Paris. The identity of the first person to isolate HIV (which develops into the AIDS virus) was previously disputed among Dr. Montagnier and American Robert Gallo. Eventually the two of them agreed to share credit for the discovery of the HIV virus.