List of Famous people who died in 2000

Michael Smith was a British-born Canadian biochemist and businessman. He shared the 1993 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Kary Mullis for his work in developing site-directed mutagenesis. Following a PhD in 1956 from the University of Manchester, he undertook postdoctoral research with Har Gobind Khorana at the British Columbia Research Council in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Subsequently, Smith worked at the Fisheries Research Board of Canada Laboratory in Vancouver before being appointed a professor of biochemistry in the UBC Faculty of Medicine in 1966. Smith's career included roles as the founding director of the UBC Biotechnology Laboratory and the founding scientific leader of the Protein Engineering Network of Centres of Excellence (PENCE). In 1996 he was named Peter Wall Distinguished Professor of Biotechnology. Subsequently he became the founding director of the Genome Sequencing Centre at the BC Cancer Research Centre.

Kurt Haertel was a German patent lawyer. He played a leading role in the establishment of the European patent system. He is sometimes referred to as one of the "fathers of the European patent law", or the "father of European patent law". He was President of the Deutsches Patent- und Markenamt from 1963 to 1975. In October 1977, he was elected Honorary Chairman of the Administrative Council of the European Patent Organisation.

Louis Eugène Félix Néel ForMemRS was a French physicist born in Lyon.