It was with great sadness that we learned of the death of French chemist Jacques Livage, who held the Chemistry of Condensed Matter chair at the Collège de France from 2001 to 2009, on Sunday 9 November 2025, aged 87 .
A great name in materials chemistry and soft chemistry has passed away. Jacques Livage had a profound impact on French and international research, opening up new avenues in the design and understanding of materials.
Trained at the École nationale supérieure de chimie de Paris, Jacques Livage became a professor at Pierre-et-Marie-Curie University in 1974, where he founded the Laboratoire chimie de la matière condensée de Paris. He was appointed Chair of Condensed Matter Chemistry at the Collège de France from 2001 to 2009, and elected to the Académie des Sciences in November 2001.
A world-renowned scientist, Jacques Livage is considered one of the founders of soft chemistry, an innovative approach to materials synthesis at low temperatures, inspired by the biological processes of mineralization, as described in an article in Le Monde in October 1977. He developed and advanced sol-gel processes, enabling the creation of glasses, ceramics and composite materials from precursors in solution, thus avoiding the very high-temperature treatments of conventional routes.
Jacques Livage leaves a lasting and profound scientific legacy in materials chemistry. Today, the French scientific community has lost a major figure : not only an exceptional researcher, but also a builder of bridges between chemistry, biology and materials science.
Beyond being a scientist and a professor, Jacques was for many a friend, always available, attentive and with great humanity. His kindness, humor and infectious passion will be deeply missed. We will remember the good times we shared, the inspiring exchanges and the positive impact he had on our lives and on the way we do science.
Our thoughts are with his family, his loved ones and all those who had the good fortune to work alongside him.
His memory and his work will continue to inspire future generations.
Thomas RÖMER
Chairman of the Collège de France
