On February 24, 2025, La Poste issued a stamp illustrated with a portrait of Lucie RANDOIN, nutrition physiologist and the second woman to enter the Academy of Medicine in 1946, on the occasion of the 140th anniversary of her birth. Born in Bœurs-en-Othe in a modest family, Lucie Fandard went to Paris to study science. A doctorate in physiology, an aggregation in natural sciences during which she met her husband Arthur Randoin, her career excelled. After a stint at the Oceanographic Institute, she arrived at the Scientific Society of Food Hygiene where she took over the management of the physiology laboratory in 1924. She stayed there for 36 years, working in these laboratories co-financed by the Ministry of Agriculture and the École pratique des hautes études du CNRS, above which she lived. Her thesis focused on blood sugar.
At the SSHA, she isolated B vitamins, essential for the use of sugar in the body, then vitamin C. In the SSHA calorimetric chamber, she measured the calorie, defined as a unit of measurement of the energy provided by food. This work led to the development of the first table of food composition in 1937. Its application was major in the context of shortages linked to the war, during which she conducted national surveys on food. Nutrition was founded, a new discipline that should be taught. With Dr. Trémolières, she created the profession of dietician and the state diploma that leads to it. She participated in the dissemination of knowledge in the field, exhibition at the Grand Palais, radio talks and brochures on food hygiene. She was the second woman to enter the Academy of Medicine in 1946, a member of the Academy of Sciences, Secretary General of the SSHA in 1942, President of the Society of Biological Chemistry in 1945. Finally, as the ultimate recognition, she received the tie of Commander of the Legion of Honor.
