Professor Patrick Forterre (French pronunciation: [patʁik fɔʁtɛʁ]), born 21 August 1949 in Paris, is a French writer and researcher in biology. He is Head of the Department of Microbiology at the Pasteur Institute and is known for his work on Archaea, viruses and the evolution of life. Forterre was the first to use the abbreviation of "Last Universal Common Ancestor", or "LUCA", in a 1999 paper.[1][2]