Bi-national Prizes

French-German Prize Georg Wittig – Victor Grignard

(Prix franco-allemand Georg Wittig – Victor Grignard)

Professor Klaus Müllen, Max-Planck-Institute for Polymer Research, Mainz, Germany, was awarded for his outstanding contribution to various fields of chemistry, including molecular and polymeric materials.

Klaus Müllen studied chemistry at the University of Cologne, Germany, and gained his Ph.D. from the University of Basel, Switzerland. He did his post-doctoral training and Habilitation at ETH Zurich, Switerzland, and was appointed Professor at the University of Cologne in 1979. He spent six years at the University of Mainz, Germany, before taking up his current role as Director at the Max-Planck-Institute for Polymer Research in 1989.

His research focuses on new polymer-forming reactions for multi-dimensional polymers with complex shape-persistent architectures and functional polymeric networks. He also studies materials with liquid crystalline properties for electronic and optoelectronic devices and materials for lithium or hydrogen storage.

French-Spanish Prize Miguel Catalán – Paul Sabatier

(Prix franco-espagnol Miguel Catalán – Paul Sabatier)

Professor Santiago Alvarez Reverter, University of Barcelona, Spain, was awarded for his remarkable work in theoretical chemistry and the introduction of new concepts in coordination chemistry, as well as for his many collaborations with French chemists.

Santiago Alvarez Reverter studied chemistry at the University of Barcelona and obtained his Ph.D. there in 1980. He undertook postdoctoral research with Roald Hoffmann at Cornell University, Ithaca, USA, and has been a visiting scientist in the USA, France, Chile, and Israel. In 1989, he became professor at the University of Barcelona, where his research interests include molecular magnetism, electronic structure and bonding in solids and strained molecules, supramolecular inorganic chemistry, surfaces, metal–metal interactions, coordination chemistry, and bioinorganic chemistry.

Annual Prizes of Société Chimique de France

Joseph-Achille Le Bel Prize

Professor Samir Zard, Director of research at Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS, National Centre for Scientific Research) and Professor at the Ecole Polytechnique, Palaiseau, France, for his contributions to organic synthesis and discoveries in the field of radical polymerization which have had strong extensions in industry.

Samir Zard studied chemistry at Imperial College London, UK, and gained his Ph.D. from Université Paris-Sud, France, in 1983. Shortly after, he became a CNRS researcher at the Natural Product Chemistry Institute, Gif-sur-Yvette, France. In 1986, he joined the department of chemistry and organic synthesis (DCSO) of École Polytechnique, Palaiseau , France, where he is currently director of DCSO and chairman of the chemistry department.

His research interests include the development and mechanistic study of new and synthetically useful reactions and processes, with a special interest in radicals, organosulfur derivatives, alkynes, and nitro compounds.

Pierre Süe Prize

Professor Lahcene Ouahab, Director of research at CNRS, was awarded for his contributions to the chemistry of molecular materials, for his actions to the community of chemists, and for promoting closer Franco–Japanese collaboration.

and

Professor Philippe Sautet, Ecole Normale Suprérieure Lyon, France, was awarded for his major contributions to theoretical chemistry and catalysis and for his strong and dynamic involvement in the service of chemistry in Lyon.

Lahcene Ouahab gained his doctorate from the University of Rennes, France, and was appointed Assistant Professor at the University of Constantine, Algeria, in 1978. He returned to the University of Rennes in 1987 as Associate Professor. He joined the CNRS in 1989 as a Researcher and took up his current position as Director of Research in 1998.

His research interests include multifunctional inorganic materials, charge transfer complexes, radical ion salts, organic-inorganic hybrids, polymeric coordination complexes, and polyoxometallates.

Philippe Sautet gained his Ph.D. from Paris-Orsey University, France, in 1989. He was a research associate at the CNRS Institute of Catalysis Research, Villeurbanne, France, from 1988–1995. He became Director of Research there in 1995 and Director of the Laboratoire de Chemie at the Ecole Normale Superieure de Lyon in 2003.

His research centers on modeling elementary steps of heterogeneous catalysis and electronic structure at the solid-gas interface, as well as DFT studies of reactions of molecules at surfaces and on metal complexes.