The Joseph-Achille Le Bel Prize 2016 by the Société Chimique de France (SCF, French Chemical Society) has been awarded to Christian Bruneau, Université de Rennes 1, and Mir Wais Hosseini, Université de Strasbourg, both France. The prize recognizes French chemists whose work is acclaimed on an international level and was presented during a ceremony on May 4, 2017, in Villeurbanne (near Lyon), France.
Christian Bruneau (pictured left) is honored for his contributions to homogeneous catalysis. His research focuses on green catalysis using transition metal complexes, especially ruthenium catalysis, olefin and ene-yne metathesis, enantioselective hydrogenation reactions, and the catalytic transformations of natural compounds. Mir Wais Hosseini (pictured right) receives the award for his work on supramolecular chemistry. His research interests include organic and metal-organic molecular frameworks, complexes of main-group elements, molecular recognition, and artificial enzymes.
Christian Bruneau studied chemical engineering at the Institut National Supérieur de Chimie Industrielle de Rouen, France. He received his Ph.D. from the National School of Chemistry, Rennes, France, in 1979, and served as researcher there from 1980 to 1986. Bruneau joined the University of Rennes 1 in 1986 and finished his habilitation there in 1991.
Among other honors, Bruneau has received the award of the Coordination Chemistry Section of the SCF in 2008 and the Paul Langevin Prize 2012 from the French Academy of Sciences.
Mir Wais Hosseini studied chemistry at the University of Strasbourg, where he received his Ph.D. under the supervision of Jean-Marie Lehn in 1983. He currently is Exceptional Class Professor of Chemistry at the University of Strasbourg and Senior Member of the Institut Universitaire de France, Chair of Molecular Tectonics, and Director of the Molecular Tectonics Laboratory.
Among other honors, Hosseini has received the Silver Medal of the French National Research Center (CNRS) in 2011 and the Alexander von Humboldt Research Award in 2013. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry, a Member of the European Academy of Sciences, Arts and Humanities, a Member of Academia Europaea, and he was named a Knight of the National Order of the Legion of Honor in France in 2014.
Selected Publications by Christian Bruneau
- Ruthenium and Iridium Dipyridylamine Catalysts for the Efficient Synthesis of γ-Valerolactone by Transfer Hydrogenation of Levulinic Acid,
Shengdong Wang, Vincent Dorcet, Thierry Roisnel, Christian Bruneau, Cédric Fischmeister,
Organometallics 2017, 36, 708–713.
DOI: 10.1021/acs.organomet.6b00895 - PEPPSI-Type Palladium-NHC Complexes: Synthesis, Characterization, and Catalytic Activity in the Direct C5-Arylation of 2-Substituted Thiophene Derivatives with Aryl Halides,
Murat Kaloğlu, İsmail Özdemir, Vincent Dorcet, Christian Bruneau, Henri Doucet,
Eur. J. Inorg. Chem. 2017, 2017, 1382–1391.
DOI: 10.1002/ejic.201601452 - One-Pot Directing Group Formation/C−H Bond Functionalization via Copper(I) and Ruthenium(II) Catalysis,
Christian Bruneau, Rafael Gramage-Doria,
Adv. Synth. Catal. 2016, 358, 3847–3856.
DOI: 10.1002/adsc.201600735 - Metal Vinylidenes and Allenylidenes in Catalysis: From Reactivity to Applications in Synthesis,
Christian Bruneau, Pierre Dixneuf (Editors),
Wiley, 2008.
ISBN: 978-3-527-31892-6 - Metal Vinylidenes and Allenylidenes in Catalysis: Applications in Anti-Markovnikov Additions to Terminal Alkynes and Alkene Metathesis,
Christian Bruneau, Pierre H. Dixneuf,
Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2006, 45, 2176–2203.
DOI: 10.1002/anie.200501391 - Metal Vinylidenes in Catalysis,
Christian Bruneau, Pierre H. Dixneuf,
Acc. Chem. Res. 1999, 32, 311–323.
DOI: 10.1021/ar980016i - Ruthenium(II)-Catalyzed C–H Bond Activation and Functionalization,
Percia Beatrice Arockiam, Christian Bruneau, Pierre H. Dixneuf,
Chem. Rev. 2012, 112, 5879–5918.
DOI: 10.1021/cr300153J
Selected Publications by Mir Wais Hosseini
- Phosphorus(V) Porphyrin-Based Molecular Turnstiles,
Ivan N. Meshkov, Véronique Bulach, Yulia G. Gorbunova, Nathalie Kyritsakas, Mikhail S. Grigoriev, Aslan Yu. Tsivadze, Mir Wais Hosseini,
Inorg. Chem. 2016, 55, 10774–10782.
DOI: 10.1021/acs.inorgchem.6b01989 - AzaBODIPY based coordination polymers,
Antoine Mazel, Stéphane A. Baudron, Mir Wais Hosseini,
CrystEngComm 2017, 19, 897–900.
DOI: 10.1039/c6ce02582j - Molecular tectonics: hierarchical organization of heterobimetallic coordination networks into heterotrimetallic core–shell crystals,
Fan Zhang, Cyril R. R. Adolf, Nicolas Zigon, Sylvie Ferlay, Nathalie Kyritsakas, Mir Wais Hosseini,
Chem. Commun. 2017, 53, 3587–3590.
DOI: 10.1039/c7cc01455d - Systematic Structural Coordination Chemistry of p–tert-Butyltetrathiacalix[4]arene: Further Complexes of Transition-Metal Ions,
Alexander Bilyk, John W. Dunlop, Rebecca O. Fuller, Annegret K. Hall, Jack M. Harrowfield, M. Wais Hosseini, George A. Koutsantonis, Ian W. Murray, Brian W. Skelton, Robert L. Stamps, Allan H. White,
Eur. J. Inorg. Chem. 2010, 2010, 2106–02126.
DOI: 10.1002/ejic.200901071 - Beyond classical coordination: silver–π interactions in metal dipyrrin complexes,
Domingo Salazar-Mendoza, Stéphane A. Baudron, Mir Wais Hosseini,
Chem. Commun. 2007.
DOI: 10.1039/b704466f - Molecular Tectonics on Surfaces: Bottom-Up Fabrication of 1D Coordination Networks That Form 1D and 2D Arrays on Graphite,
Mathieu Surin, Paolo Samorì, Abdelaziz Jouaiti, Nathalie Kyritsakas, Mir Wais Hosseini,
Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2007, 46, 245–249.
DOI: 10.1002/anie.200603558
Also of Interest
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ChemViews Mag. 2016.
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ChemViews Mag. 2015.
French organochemist Max Malacria honored