Professor Max Malacria, Université Pierre et Marie Curie, Paris, France, has been awarded the Joseph-Achille Le Bel Prize (Grand Prix Joseph-Achille Le Bel) 2014 by the Société Chimique de France (SCF, French Chemical Society). The prize recognizes French chemists whose work is acclaimed on an international level.
Malacria is honored for his outstanding discoveries in organic synthesis and the introduction of new concepts for the selective formation of polycyclic compounds. The award was presented during a ceremony on May 21, 2015, in Paris, France.
Max Malacria obtained his Master’s degree from the University of Aix-Marseille III, France, in 1970 and his Ph.D. in chemistry from the same university for work under the supervision of Marcel Bertrand in 1974. He was a postdoctoral fellow with Peter Vollhardt at the University of California, Berkeley, USA. Since 1985, Malacria is Professor of Organic Chemistry at the Université Pierre et Marie Curie, Paris, France, and since 2011, he serves as director of the Institut de Chimie des Substances Naturelles (INSC), Gif-sur-Yvette, France. Among other commitments, he is a member of the International Advisory Board of the Asian Journal of Organic Chemistry.
Professor Malacria’s honors and awards include a NATO Scholarship for his postdoctoral studies, a Fulbright Scholarship in 1986, the Prix de l’Académie des Sciences Grammaticakis-Neuman in 2000, the CNRS Silver Medal in 2001, and the Catalan-Sabatier Prize by the Société Chimique de France (SCF, French Chemical Society) and the Real Sociedad Española de Química (RSEQ, Royal Spanish Chemical Society) in 2009.
His research interests include transition metal-catalyzed cyclizations and cycloisomerizations, radical chemistry, asymmetric synthesis involving heteroatoms, self-assembled molecules, allene synthesis and epoxidation, and natural product chemistry.
Selected Publications
- Intramolecular Anion Effect in Polyoxometalate-Based Organocatalysts: Reactivity Enhancement and Chirality Transfer by a Metal Oxide-Organic Cation Interaction,
Christian Brazel, Nathalie Dupré, Max Malacria, Bernold Hasenknopf, Emmanuel Lacôte, Serge Thorimbert,
Chem. Eur. J. 2014, 20, 16074–16077.
DOI: 10.1002/chem.201403989 - Gold-Catalyzed Polymerization Based on Carbene Polycyclopropanation,
Frida Nzulu, Alexis Bontemps, Julien Robert, Marion Barbazanges, Louis Fensterbank, Jean-Philippe Goddard, Max Malacria, Cyril Ollivier, Marc Petit, Jutta Rieger, François Stoffelbach,
Macromolecules 2014, 47, 6652–6656.
DOI: 10.1021/ma501516s - Molecular Complexity from Polyunsaturated Substrates: The Gold Catalysis Approach,
Louis Fensterbank, Max Malacria,
Acc. Chem. Res. 2014, 47, 953–965.
DOI: 10.1021/ar4002334 - Transition Metal Catalyzed Cycloisomerizations of 1,n-Allenynes and -Allenenes,
Corinne Aubert, Louis Fensterbank, Pierre Garcia, Max Malacria, Antoine Simonneau,
Chem. Rev. 2011, 111, 1954–1993.
DOI: 10.1021/cr100376w - Generation and Trapping of Cyclopentenylidene Gold Species: Four Pathways to Polycyclic Compounds,
Gilles Lemière, Vincent Gandon, Kevin Cariou, Alexandra Hours, Takahide Fukuyama, Anne-Lise Dhimane, Louis Fensterbank, Max Malacria,
J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2009, 131, 2993–3006.
DOI: 10.1021/ja808872u - Golden Carousel in Catalysis: The Cationic Gold/Propargylic Ester Cycle,
Andrea Correa, Nicolas Marion, Louis Fensterbank, Max Malacria, Steven P. Nolan, Luigi Cavallo,
Angew. Chem. Int. Ed.2008, 47, 718–721.
DOI: 10.1002/anie.200703769
