Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1, France
I began my career in the French pharmaceutical industry: at the Roussel-Uclaf laboratory in Romainville, then at the Delallande Research Center in Rueil-Malmaison. During this period, I attended evening classes at the CNAM Paris. I obtained my chemical engineering degree there, then my doctoral thesis in 1982 (supervised by Prof. J.P. Guetté: “New chlorination reagents”). I completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Groningen (Netherlands): “Enantioselective cross-coupling using chiral macrocycles as ligands”, supervised by Prof. R. M. Kellogg. I was appointed assistant and then lecturer at the CNAM Paris, then professor at the Claude Bernard University in 1989 and I created a new laboratory there focused on several research areas:
1°Separation science and technology: Complexation by nanofiltration, molecular imprinting applied to the treatment of nuclear industry waste and deep desulfurization of diesel.
2°Catalysis: Use of heterogeneous catalysis in fine organic catalysis including asymmetric catalysis, reductive alkylation of alcohol, etc.
3°What is now called “Green Chemistry”: new catalysts, reagents and solvents with low ecological impacts for the reduction, oxidation and formation of CC bonds.
I held the positions of Director of the Master in Catalysis then that of Organic Chemistry, and finally that of Director of the CNRS Unit which brought together the organic chemists with our biochemist of the Lyon 1 campus and which led to the creation of the ICBMS.
I am co-author of over 405 publications and 102 original patents. I regularly give lectures in universities, scientific conferences and companies. I have received several scientific awards: Berthelot Medal, Langevin Prize, Lebel Prize, and Rhône-Alpes Innovation Prize. I have been a senior member of the French University Institute (IUF) since 2009 and a member of the Academia Europaea since 2019 and Akademia Malagasy since 2025.