Stamps in memory of French doctor and bacteriologist Alexandre Yersin (1863-1943) who founded the Medical School of Ha Noi in 1902 went on sale in Viet Nam and France today.—VNS Photo

HA NOI (VNS)– Stamps in memory of French doctor and bacteriologist Alexandre Yersin (1863-1943) who founded the Medical School of Ha Noi in 1902 went on sale in Viet Nam and France today.

The stamps feature two portraits of Yersin to mark the 150th anniversary of his birth.

One features a portrait of the doctor as a young scientist with an image of the Pasteur Institute, where he began his career, in the background.

The second features a portrait of him as a scientist who devoted his whole life to Viet Nam. The background is the Pasteur Institute in southern Nha Trang City which he founded in 1895.

It also has an image of Lam Vien plateau in the central highland province of Lam Dong that he discovered and fell in love with. The city of Da Lat was later built on it.

Yersin is remembered as the co-discoverer of the bacillus responsible for the bubonic plague, which was later named in his honour (Yersinia pestis).

He is also well remembered in southern Nha Trang city where he lived for more than 50 years.

After his death, following the country's independence, streets were named in his honour, and his tomb in Suoi Dau region was graced with a pagoda where rites are held to honour him.

Yersin's house in Nha Trang is now the Yersin Museum, and the epitaph on his tombstone describes him as a Benefactor and humanist, venerated by the Vietnamese people.

To mark the 40th anniversary of renewed diplomatic relations between France and Viet Nam, the Ministry of Information and Communications has also launched the website www.viet-phap.vn. – VNS