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Michèle Knoepffler-Péguy, whom everyone called ‘Minouche’, was born on 12th January 1934 at Tunis, Tunisia (Fig. 1). Her father, Georges Péguy, was an army officer (commanding a battalion of colonial infantry). Her mother, born Suzanne Berthier, was a ‘housewife’ (as they were termed in those days). Minouche spent her childhood in Tunis, she studied there and get her Baccalauréat (1951), then the SPCN (first year undergraduate course, in France and in Tunisia during the French colonial period; 1952). She continued her scholar training at the university in Paris (Université Pierre et Marie Curie), and was awarded the Licence-ès-Sciences (equivalent of BSc) in 1958. From 1958 to 1968, she was Assistante (junior lecturer) in plant biology at the Faculté des Sciences d’Orsay, near Paris; from 1968, she was Assistante in marine plant biology working at the Laboratoire Arago, Banyuls-sur-Mer (in French Catalonia); the Laboratoire Arago is one of the three marine sciences research stations attached to the Université Pierre et Marie Curie. From 1974 to 2001 (when she retired), Minouche was Maître-Assistante (Lecturer), then Maître de Conférences (Senior Lecturer).