On October 30th, 2009, renowned anthropologist and French thinker Claude Lévi-Strauss passed away at the age of 100. Born on November 28th, 1908, in Brussels, Belgium, Lévi-Strauss was an intellectual luminary who revolutionized the way anthropology was viewed in the academic world. He completed his studies at the University of Paris in 1931, and later joined the École Libre des Hautes Études (Free School of Higher Studies), where his education in anthropology and mythology was furthered. During the Second World War, he served in the French Resistance and was active in the newly established Maison des Sciences de l’Homme (House of Human Sciences). After the war, Lévi-Strauss was appointed professor at the University of Sao Paulo in Brazil, a post he held until 1955. It was here that he immersed himself in the study of indigenous tribes and developed his revolutionary theories on the structure of primitive thought. In 1959, he was invited to lecture at the New School of Social Research in New York. Years later he would publish his famous work, Tristes tropiques, which earned him a worldwide reputation. Throughout his career, Lévi-Strauss wrote dozens of books, articles, and papers expounding extensively on the similarities between disparate cultures. His writings have had a lasting influence on contemporary anthropology. Lévi-Strauss is survived by his family and extended academic community. He will be fondly remembered as a groundbreaking anthropologist whose scholarship changed the course of human knowledge.