Bernard Meunier (born 11 March 1947) is a French

chemist A chemist (from Greek ''chēm(ía)'' alchemy; replacing ''chymist'' from Medieval Latin ''alchemist'') is a scientist trained in the study of chemistry. Chemists study the composition of matter and its properties. Chemists carefully describe ...

and academic. He has been a member of the

Académie des sciences The French Academy of Sciences (French: ''Académie des sciences'') is a learned society, founded in 1666 by Louis XIV at the suggestion of Jean-Baptiste Colbert, to encourage and protect the spirit of French scientific research. It was at the ...

since 1999.

Career

After a doctorate at the

University of Montpellier The University of Montpellier (french: Université de Montpellier) is a public research university located in Montpellier, in south-east of France. Established in 1220, the University of Montpellier is one of the oldest universities in the wor ...

in November 1971 under the supervision of Robert Corriu, he obtained a state doctorate at the

University of Paris-Sud Paris-Sud University (French: ''Université Paris-Sud''), also known as University of Paris — XI (or as Université d'Orsay before 1971), was a French research university distributed among several campuses in the southern suburbs of Paris, in ...

Orsay Orsay () is a commune in the Essonne department in Île-de-France in northern France. It is located in the southwestern suburbs of Paris, France, from the centre of Paris. A fortified location of the Chevreuse valley since the 8th century a ...

in June 1977 (with

Hugh Felkin Hugh Felkin (1922–2001) was a research chemist in France from 1950 to 1990 and a member of the Royal Society of Chemistry. In 1967, he proposed a model to predict the stereochemical outcome of the addition of nucleophiles to carbonylic compound ...

as thesis supervisor). After a post-doctoral fellowship at

Oxford University Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

(September 1977 - August 1978) he joined the

CNRS The French National Centre for Scientific Research (french: link=no, Centre national de la recherche scientifique, CNRS) is the French state research organisation and is the largest fundamental science agency in Europe. In 2016, it employed 31,63 ...

Coordination Chemistry Laboratory in Toulouse in September 1979. He joined the CNRS in January 1973 in

Gif-sur-Yvette Gif-sur-Yvette (, literally ''Gif on Yvette'') is a commune in south-western Ile de France, France. It is located from the center of Paris. Geography The town is crossed by and named after the river Yvette. The total area is and is green sp ...

at the

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 École may refer to: * an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by secondary education establishments (collège and lycée) * École (river), a tributary of the Seine The Seine ( , ) is a river in northern Franc ...

. 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 Guangdong University of Technology (abbreviated as GDUT) is a provincial university in Guangdong, China. The university offers a range of courses in engineering, science, technology, management, liberal arts and law, with major emphasis on the st ...

(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 *Prize of the

in 1997 * Descartes-Huygens Prize in 2001 *

Gay-Lussac Humboldt Prize Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac (, , ; 6 December 1778 – 9 May 1850) was a French chemist and physicist. He is known mostly for his discovery that water is made of two parts hydrogen and one part oxygen (with Alexander von Humboldt), for two laws ...

in 2002 *Achille-Le-Bel Grand Prize of the

Société chimique de France Lactalis is a French multinational dairy products corporation, owned by the Besnier family and based in Laval, Mayenne, France. The company's former name was Besnier SA. Lactalis is the largest dairy products group in the world, and is the se ...

in 2007 *Elected on 11 December 2012 as Vice-President of the Académie des sciences for the period 2013-2014 *Elected on 18 November 2014 as President of the Académie des sciences for the period 2015-2016 *Prize of the Cercle d'Oc (Toulouse) in 2015

Honours

* Member of the Academie des sciences since 22 November 1999 * Correspondant member of the Académie des sciences inscriptions et belles lettres of Toulouse (Science Class) in 2001Liste des membres
sur le site de
Académie des sciences, inscriptions et belles-lettres de Toulouse
/ref> * Foreign member of the

Polish Academy of Sciences The Polish Academy of Sciences ( pl, Polska Akademia Nauk, PAN) is a Polish state-sponsored institution of higher learning. Headquartered in Warsaw, it is responsible for spearheading the development of science across the country by a society of ...

since 2005 * 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 The Collège de France (), formerly known as the ''Collège Royal'' or as the ''Collège impérial'' founded in 1530 by François I, is a higher education and research establishment ('' grand établissement'') in France. It is located in Paris ...

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 The National Order of the Legion of Honour (french: Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur), formerly the Royal Order of the Legion of Honour ('), is the highest French order of merit, both military and civil. Established in 1802 by Napoleon B ...

. He was promoted to officier by decree on April 3, 2015. He was Chevalier on November 14, 2006.

Publications

* ''L'homme oublié du canal de Panama, Adolphe Godin de Lépinay'', CNRS Éditions, Paris, 2018, *''Chimique, vous osez dire chimique?'', CNRS Éditions, Paris, 2022,

References

Sources

* ''Bernard Meunier'' on the

website {{DEFAULTSORT:Meunier, Bernard 1947 births Living people 20th-century French chemists Members of the French Academy of Sciences University of Montpellier alumni 21st-century French chemists Research directors of the French National Centre for Scientific Research