Digital publication of Pr Louis Fensterbank's opening lecture

Louis Fensterbank

Molecular chemistry : new challenges and sustainable innovation

Molecular synthesis is the science of transforming starting molecules to create new, more elaborate ones. Physically, it involves forming new bonds between atoms through a process of molecular activation, which may be thermal, photochemical, mechanical or catalytic.

After more than a century of industrial development and constant innovation, the need for energy transition and resource sustainability is redirecting research into molecular synthesis, particularly activation processes, to produce molecules with optimized properties for a growing world population.

This book is the result of the opening lecture given at the Collège de France on Thursday 7 March 2024 by Louis Fensterbank, Activations in Molecular Chemistry Professor.

Fensterbank L., Chimie moléculaire : nouveaux défis et innovation durable, Paris, Collège de France, coll. " Leçons inaugurales ",^{no 330} , 2025.

Louis Fensterbank taught at Pierre-et-Marie-Curie University before becoming a CNRS research fellow and then professor at Sorbonne University. He was also Director of the Paris-Centre Master of Chemistry and of the Paris Institute of Molecular Chemistry. The recipient of several awards, including the CNRS Silver Medal in 2017, he has held the Activations in Molecular Chemistry chair at the Collège de France since October 2023.