After a post-doctoral fellowship at Oxford University (September 1977 - August 1978) he joined the CNRS Coordination Chemistry Laboratory in Toulouse in September 1979. He joined the CNRS in January 1973 in Gif-sur-Yvette at the CNRS Institute of Natural Substances Chemistry, where he rose through all levels to become Director of Research specialising in oxidation chemistry, particularly in the field of biology and therapeutic chemistry (antitumours, antiparasites and regulators of copper homeostasis in Alzheimer's disease).
From 1993 to 2006, he was associate professor at the École Polytechnique. He was appointed President of the CNRS on 20 October 2004, a position he held until his resignation on 5 January 2006. He has been Director of Research Emeritus at the CNRS since September 2012 and Visiting Professor at the Guangdong University of Technology (China) since the same date.
He was invited professor at the Collège de France (2014-1015) on the Innovation Chair supported by the Liliane Bettencourt Foundation.
Distinctions
Prizes
Silver medal from the CNRS in 1991 Clavel-Lespieau
Full member of the Académie des sciences, inscriptions et belles lettres of Toulouse (Science Class) in 2009
Associate member of the Académie national de Pharmacie since 4 December 2013
Visiting professor at the Collège de France for the year 2014-2015 (Liliane Bettencourt Chair of Technological Innovation). His course is entitled "Therapeutic innovation: developments and trends"
Décorations
Officier of the Légion d'honneur. He was promoted to officier by decree on April 3, 2015.[4] He was Chevalier on November 14, 2006.
Publications
L'homme oublié du canal de Panama, Adolphe Godin de Lépinay, CNRS Éditions, Paris, 2018, ISBN978-2-271-09516-9
Chimique, vous osez dire chimique?, CNRS Éditions, Paris, 2022, ISBN978-2-271-14167-5
L'insoutenable dette publique de la France, Éditions l'Harmattan, Paris, 2024 ISBN978-2-336-45829-8
References
^Bernard Meunier, Comportement des organosilanes fonctionnels vis-à-vis des réactifs de Grignard activés par des complexes de nickel, Université Montpellier 2, thèse de troisième cycle en sciences, 1971