LAUSR

Catalysis in France is an adventure with a long tradition illustrated with major discoveries and famous scientists. More than 100 years ago, Paul Sabatier (Nobel Laureate in 1912) and JeanBaptiste Senderens discovered the activity of finely divided metals in hydrogenation of olefins and other unsaturated compounds; these results laid the groundwork for today’s industrial catalysis. In the 1920’s, the French Engineer Eugene Houdry started his research on the production of gasoline from lignite in France, then he moved to United States and opened the way to the catalytic conversion of crude petroleum to high-octane gasoline. Boris Imelik was a pioneer in the use of physico-chemical techniques for catalyst characterization. FranÅois Gault, a brilliant French scientist, worked on catalytic mechanisms. We pay tribute to his memory by awarding the Francois Gault Lectureship, the highest European distinction in the field of catalysis (EFCATS lecture series). Prettre, Germain, Teichner, Maurel, Barthomeuf, among others, fascinated by catalysis, played a major role in the development of catalysis at national and international levels. This tradition continued with Yves Chauvin’s innovations, Nobel Laureate in 2005, who discovered the metathesis mechanism and Henri Kagan’s pioneer work in asymmetric catalysis. France contributed to the promotion and the development of the global catalysis community by organizing in Paris two editions of the International Congress on Catalysis : the 2 ICC (1960) and 13 ICC (2004) and two editions of Europacat : the first (1993-Montpellier) and the 13 (2013-Lyon) editions. Today, the younger generation of French researchers and engineers in catalysis work in more than 30 academic laboratories and research institutes. They are sharing the same enthusiasm and flame and have understood the role that catalysis has to play to face the main challenges of our society.