Jean-Michel Savéant (19 September 1933 – 16 August 2020) was a French chemist who specialized in electrochemistry. He was elected member of the

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

in 2000 and foreign associate of the

National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the Nati ...

in 2001. He published in excess of 400 peer-reviewed articles in chemistry literature.

Biography

Born in

Rennes Rennes (; br, Roazhon ; Gallo: ''Resnn''; ) is a city in the east of Brittany in northwestern France at the confluence of the Ille and the Vilaine. Rennes is the prefecture of the region of Brittany, as well as the Ille-et-Vilaine department ...

, Jean-Michel Savéant graduated in 1958 and obtained his PhD in 1966 at the École normale supérieure. In 1971 he moved to Paris Diderot University where he founded the Laboratoire d'Électrochimie Moléculaire. He was an

emeritus ''Emeritus'' (; female: ''emerita'') is an adjective used to designate a retired chair, professor, pastor, bishop, pope, director, president, prime minister, rabbi, emperor, or other person who has been "permitted to retain as an honorary title ...

professor of electrochemistry in this university as well as an emeritus

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 31,637 ...

Research Director. He was the author of over 500 publications.

Major contributions

Jean-Michel Savéant’s scientific activity is outlined by the foundation and development of a new discipline - molecular electrochemistry. Molecular electrochemistry has transferred the knowledge acquired by electrochemistry towards various fields of chemistry and biochemistry, in particular towards the chemistry of electron and proton transfer, free radical chemistry, chemical reactivity theory,

coordination chemistry A coordination complex consists of a central atom or ion, which is usually metallic and is called the ''coordination centre'', and a surrounding array of bound molecules or ions, that are in turn known as ''ligands'' or complexing agents. Many ...

, photochemistry, solid physico-chemistry,

enzymology Enzymes () are proteins that act as biological catalysts by accelerating chemical reactions. The molecules upon which enzymes may act are called substrates, and the enzyme converts the substrates into different molecules known as products. A ...

and catalytic activation of small molecules, especially those involved in solving contemporary energy challenges.

Awards

*Prix Louis Ancel de la Société Chimique de France (1966) *

Médaille d'argent du CNRS The CNRS Silver Medal is a scientific award given every year to about fifteen researchers by the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS). It is awarded to a researcher for "the originality, quality and importance of their work, re ...

(1976) *Faraday Medal of the Royal Society of Chemistry (1983) *Medaglia Luigi Riccoboni (1983) *Prix Emile Jungfleisch of the Académie des Sciences (1989) *Charles N. Reilley Award (1990) * Olin Palladium Award of the Electrochemical Society (1993) *Medaglia Luigi Galvani della Società Chimica Italiana (1997) *Manuel Baizer Award of the

Electrochemical Society The Electrochemical Society is a learned society (professional association) based in the United States that supports scientific inquiry in the field of electrochemistry and solid-state science and related technology. The Society membership compris ...

(2002) *Bruno Breyer Medal of the Royal Australian Chemical Institute (2005) *Distinguished Fairchild Scholar at the California Institute of Technology (1988) *Oscar K. Rice Distinguished Lecturer at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (1995) *Nelson Leonard Distinguished Lecturer at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (1999) *Baker Lecturer at Cornell University (2002) *Membre de l' Académie des Sciences (2000) *Foreign Associate of the

of the United States of America (2001). * Air Liquide Essential Molecules Challenge (2016)Air Liquide announces the winners of the “Essential Molecules Challenge”
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Bibliography

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References

External links

List of Publications (1958-to present)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Saveant, Jean-Michel 1933 births 2020 deaths Members of the French Academy of Sciences Foreign associates of the National Academy of Sciences 20th-century French chemists 21st-century French chemists Electrochemists