Background
Albert Maige was born on November 26, 1872, in Auxonne, Côte d'Or, France. His father was a hairdresser and died very young, and his mother had to provide a living for his two sons.
Ecole Normale Supérieure, Paris, Ile-de-France, France
Albert Maige was involved in a Doctor of Philosophy studies under the direction of Gaston Bonnier at the Plant Biology Station of Fontainebleau-Avon. He analyzed the relationships between the morphology of the climbing plant and the action of light. He defended the thesis on March 27, 1900, in front of the jury which included the zoologist Alfred Giard, a former professor at the Faculty of Sciences of Lille.
Ecole Normale Supérieure, Paris, Ile-de-France, France
Albert Maige was involved in a Doctor of Philosophy studies under the direction of Gaston Bonnier at the Plant Biology Station of Fontainebleau-Avon. He analyzed the relationships between the morphology of the climbing plant and the action of light. He defended the thesis on March 27, 1900, in front of the jury which included the zoologist Alfred Giard, a former professor at the Faculty of Sciences of Lille.
Albert Maige was born on November 26, 1872, in Auxonne, Côte d'Or, France. His father was a hairdresser and died very young, and his mother had to provide a living for his two sons.
Albert Maige received his whole education through public education scholarship which he obtained through competition. He completed his primary studies in Auxonne, and his secondary studies in Dijon, where he became a Bachelor of Science with honors in 1889, at the age of 17 years. He then enters preparatory classes at the Grandes Ecoles in Paris. In the 1891 competition, he was awarded at the Ecole Normale Supérieure in 2nd place, and at the Ecole Polytechnique in 26th place. Before continuing his studies, he completed his one-year military service, and in November 1892, he entered the first year of the Ecole Normale Supérieure.
Albert Maige was involved in a Doctor of Philosophy studies under the direction of Gaston Bonnier at the Plant Biology Station of Fontainebleau-Avon. He analyzed the relationships between the morphology of the climbing plant and the action of light. He defended the thesis on March 27, 1900, in front of the jury which included the zoologist Alfred Giard, a former professor at the Faculty of Sciences of Lille.
Albert Maige started his university career in November 1900, at the age of 28 at the Ecole Supérieure des Sciences in Algiers, which would become the Faculty of Science in 1910. He taught General Botany and Botany applied to Agriculture.
On May 1, 1911, Albert Maige was called the Professor of Botany of the Faculty of Sciences at the University of Poitiers. He was involved in the organization of the Station de biologie vegetale de Mauroc to the south of Poitiers, which was finished on May 30, 1912. His scientific activities were abruptly interrupted because he is mobilized on August 1, 1914. During the war, he was an officer of the Administration des Subsistances Militaires. He was released on January 20, 1919. After the war, he had to face another ordeal, the death of his wife, on July 23, 1919, following a thyroid operation. Affected morally, he seeks to leave Poitiers and the opportunity for an exchange of positions was presented: Professor Ricome, Professor of Botany of the Faculty of Sciences of Lille, agreed to go to Poitiers, and Maige went to Lille.
Albert Maige was elected a Dean of the Faculty of Sciences on June 11, 1924, succeeding Albert Châtelet who became the Rector of Academy of Lille. He was re-elected five times for this position until his retirement in September 1943. Under his successive deanships, the Faculty was enriched in Professors and new programs. In 1924, he created 14 Professors and Docents, in 1932 he rose the number to 17 Professors and 9 Docents. This scientific increase of the Faculty generated an increase of student population: in 1913, it was 270, in 1924 - 346, and in 1932, 882; between the last two dates, it has more than doubled.
Due to his reputation as Dean and scientist, Albert Maige was called to national functions: from 1931 to 1940, he was a member of the Consultative Committee of Public Higher Education (his appointment was renewed in 1933 and 1937); From 1936 to 1939, he was a member of the commission charged to examine the candidates for the admission to the Ecole Normale Supérieure and for the admission to the scholarships. Finally, he was elected to the Higher Council for Scientific Research on May 23, 1939.
In May 1940, during the invasion of the region by the Germans, Albert Maige manages the evacuation of the University to Le Touquet. Back in early June, he was involved for a few weeks as Rector in charge of the Academy and President of the University. He was doing his utmost to get back to university in November 1940. He retired on November 26, 1942, at age 70; but his function as Dean was prolonged for another year. He suffered from asthma and coughing which progressed until he died on 29 November 1943, aged 71.
Having determined the general adaptive characteristics of creeping plants, Albert Maige determined the tendencies of a tapering evolution toward the morphology and anatomy of either rhizomes or climbing plants for which direct light discourages creeping and diffused light encourages creeping.
Maige’s Flore forestière de l'Algérie begins with general botanical concepts applied to phytogeography, to silviculture, and to the natural history of the woody plants of Algeria. It also includes four keys designed to assist in the identification of specimens: the reproductive organs and the characteristics of leafy branches, of the bare branches of trees with caducous leaves, and of the principal native woods.
Besides the description of new galls and various anomalies, Maige’s works in pathology and teratology include the study of the potato blight (brunissure), a physiological disorder caused by a progressive dehydration of the tissues, and, especially, the study of the disease of the cork oak known as “yellow spot,” which gives wine the taste of cork.
In physiology, Maige determined that the respiratory rate of the plant decreases regularly from the earliest stages to the time of blooming and that it falls steeply as the flower fades. The respiratory physiology of the flower thus resembles that of the leaf. He found that the influence of variations in turgescence on the respiration of the cell is shown by a notable simultaneous elevation of turgescence and respiration. The diminution of turgescence produces the same effects up to an optimum concentration of the cellular juice, beyond which there occurs a diminution of the respiratory coefficients. Sugar solutions of various concentrations affect the respiration, the turgescence, and the growth of the cell.
Maige conducted research in cytology, the study of pollinic karyokinesis among the Nymphaeaceae. In cytophysiology he used the cytophysiological method of unclear variations, which consists of depriving cells of nourishment, thus producing a decrease in unclear volume, and observing whether or not the nucleus grows under the influence of various substances. Combined with the analogous method of plastid variations, it can contribute valuable data concerning the nutritive values of the substances being examined. In particular, these methods enabled Maige to show that the formation of starch causes the different sugars to pass through the same stages as does the breakdown of starch but in the opposite direction - notably through stages of the dextrins and the erythrodextrins. The several enzymes involved in these processes can be arrested at certain stages.
The formation and the digestion of starch in the cells are two distinct phenomena produced by different enzymes, or at least by enzymes localized in different cellular regions. That which governs starch formation is localized, Maige proved, in the leucoplast; that which provokes amylolysis, in the cytoplasm. In addition, the former inhibits the latter during starch formation.
Albert Maige married Georgette Binsse in 1901. The had two daughters together: Hélène, born in 1902, and Lise, born in 1910. His first wife died in 1919. In Lille, Albert Maige, at the age of 48, took a new start. He remarried with Lucie Cochez, a teacher at Lycée Fénelon. Hélène, her eldest daughter, studied Pharmacy and married Maurice Hocquette, who succeded from his father-in-law's chair in 1943. She became an assistant-master at her husband's laboratory. His younger daughter, Lise, a grammarian, would marry Jean-François Gallissot, son of Charles Gallissot, professor of Mathematics and first director of the Astronomical Observatory of Lille.