Research in Chemistry in France

French chemist Antoine Lavoisier (1743-1794) laid the foundations of chemistry as the science of the transformation of matter. A long line of great French chemists followed in his footsteps—notable among them Claude Berthollet (1748–1822), Louis-Joseph Gay de Lussac (1778–1850), Marcellin Berthelot (1827–1907), and Louis Pasteur (1822–1895). France’s chemical industry (including pharmaceuticals) is the world’s fifth-largest, after those of the United States, Japan, Germany, and, recently, China. France is also the world’s third-largest exporter of chemical and pharmaceutical products. In terms of spending on research and development, the chemical industry (again including pharmaceuticals) is the leading manufacturing sector in France and the country’s top export industry.
8 Nobel prizes awarded to French chemists
The Nobel prize in chemistry has been awarded since 1901. The first French winner was HenriMOISSAN (1852–1907) for the discovery of fluorine and its properties. In 1911, Marie CURIE garnered the prize for the discovery of the elements radium and polonium. In organic chemistry, Victor GRIGNARD and Paul SABATIER developed a method for the hydrogenation of organic compounds that earned themthe prize in 1912. In 1935, the prize went to Frédéric and Irène JOLIOT-CURIE, who synthesized new radioactive elements. Jean-Marie LEHN, a professor at the Collège de France and holder of the chair in the chemistry of molecular interactions, shared the 1987 prize with Americans Donald J. Cram and Charles Pedersen for the development and use of molecules capable of selective interaction. In 2005, Yves CHAUVIN, research director at the French Petroleum Institute (IFP) and a member of the French Academy of sciences, shared the prize with Americans Robert Grubbs and Richard R. Schrock for the development of the metathesis method in organic synthesis. More...