Alexandre Minkowski, specialist on babies

PARIS -- Alexandre Minkowski, a leading French specialist on newborn babies, has died at age 88, a hospital said yesterday.

He died Friday at the Invalides Hospital, an official at the medical facility said.

In addition to being noted for his work with newborns, Dr. Minkowski is known for his service with the Resistance during World War II.

President Jacques Chirac honored the memory of "a great doctor and founding scientist of neonatology, but also a man who was committed and always upright, from the Resistance to his humanitarian work for children in the third world."

Dr. Minkowski directed the center for neonatal research at the Cochin-Port-Royal maternity ward in Paris from 1958 to 1987.

Some of his research focused on the development of babies' nervous systems and how children's brains heal after they have been traumatized during wars.

As a young Jewish doctor in Paris during the German Occupation, Dr. Minkowski joined the French Resistance in 1941.

Dr. Minkowski went on to serve as an adviser to the government, and in the 1990s he had a brief stint as an elected official for a Green party in the Paris area's regional council.