Véronique Gouverneur (born 8 November 1964 in Geel, Belgium) is the Waynflete Professor of Chemistry at

Magdalen College Magdalen College ( ) is a constituent college of the University of Oxford. It was founded in 1458 by Bishop of Winchester William of Waynflete. It is one of the wealthiest Oxford colleges, as of 2022, and one of the strongest academically, se ...

at the

University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...

in the United Kingdom. Prior to the Waynflete professorship, she held a tutorial fellowship at

Merton College, Oxford Merton College (in full: The House or College of Scholars of Merton in the University of Oxford) is a Colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. Its foundation can be traced back to the 126 ...

. Her research on fluorine chemistry has received many professional and scholarly awards. She was elected a Member of the

National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, NGO, 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 ...

in 2025.

Education

Gouverneur obtained her undergraduate degree (a

master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional prac ...

in chemistry), and then in 1991 her

doctorate A doctorate (from Latin ''doctor'', meaning "teacher") or doctoral degree is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities and some other educational institutions, derived from the ancient formalism '' licentia docendi'' ("licence to teach ...

, from the

Université catholique de Louvain UCLouvain (or Université catholique de Louvain , French for Catholic University of Louvain, officially in English the University of Louvain) is Belgium's largest French-speaking university and one of the oldest in Europe (originally establishe ...

. She moved in 1992 to the Scripps Research Institute in the US, returning to Europe in 1994. She accepted a position of Maître de Conférence at Louis Pasteur University, working with Charles Mioskowski and was associate member of the Institut de Science et d'Ingénierie Supramoléculaires.

Career and research

She joined the department of chemistry at Oxford in 1998, becoming reader in 2006 and professor in 2008. In her research career, she chose fluorine chemistry as a distinctive area to focus on because fluorine compounds have many applications, including in

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s and in

positron emission tomography Positron emission tomography (PET) is a functional imaging technique that uses radioactive substances known as radiotracers to visualize and measure changes in metabolic processes, and in other physiological activities including blood flow, r ...

(PET) scans. She has also had

visiting professor In academia, a visiting scholar, visiting scientist, visiting researcher, visiting fellow, visiting lecturer, or visiting professor is a scholar from an institution who visits a host university to teach, lecture, or perform research on a topic fo ...

posts at the University of Paris X and the

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Institute of Organic Chemistry. In 2022, she was appointed as the Waynflete Professor of Chemistry, a post that dates back to 1865.

Awards and honours

Gouverneur won the

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Research Award for

organic chemistry Organic chemistry is a subdiscipline within chemistry involving the science, scientific study of the structure, properties, and reactions of organic compounds and organic matter, organic materials, i.e., matter in its various forms that contain ...

in 2005. She was the 2008 winner of the

Royal Society of Chemistry The Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) is a learned society and professional association in the United Kingdom with the goal of "advancing the chemistry, chemical sciences". It was formed in 1980 from the amalgamation of the Chemical Society, the ...

(RSC) Bader Award, "for her important contributions to synthetic organofluorine chemistry." In 2010, she was elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry and received the

IUPAC The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC ) is an international federation of National Adhering Organizations working for the advancement of the chemical sciences, especially by developing nomenclature and terminology. It is ...

Distinguished Woman in Chemistry Award. In 2011 she was awarded the Liebig Lectureship Award of the Organic Division of the German Chemical Society. In 2012, she was holding the Blaise Pascal Chair (ENS/CEA, France). In 2013, the UK's

Royal Society The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...

selected her as one of 27

Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award The Royal Society Wolfson Fellowship, known as the Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award until 2020, is a 5 years fellowship awarded by the Royal Society since 2000. The scheme is described by the Royal Society as providing ''long-term flexib ...

holders. In 2015, Gouverneur received the

American Chemical Society The American Chemical Society (ACS) is a scientific society based in the United States that supports scientific inquiry in the field of chemistry. Founded in 1876 at New York University, the ACS currently has more than 155,000 members at all ...

Award for Creative Work in Fluorine Chemistry "for her contribution to late-stage fluorination and for invigorating creatively the field of sup>18Fradiochemistry for applications in Positron Emission Tomography." In 2016, she was an International Visiting Research Scholar of the Peter Wall Institute for Advanced Studies (

University of British Columbia The University of British Columbia (UBC) is a Public university, public research university with campuses near University of British Columbia Vancouver, Vancouver and University of British Columbia Okanagan, Kelowna, in British Columbia, Canada ...

) and held the Tetrahedron Chair at the Belgian Organic Synthesis Symposium (BOSS) meeting. That year, she received the RSC Tilden Prize for her interdisciplinary work in the area of organofluorine chemistry and radiochemistry, and the impact of her discoveries in medicine. In 2017, Gouverneur become an elected member of the European Academy of Sciences (EURASC). She received a

European Research Council The European Research Council (ERC) is a public body for funding of scientific and technological research conducted within the European Union (EU). Established by the European Commission in 2007, the ERC is composed of an independent Scientific ...

Advanced Grant in 2018. In 2019, she received the RSC Organic Stereochemistry Award and the Prelog Medal (

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). In the same year, she was the president of the Bürgenstock Conference—the Swiss Chemical Society conference on stereochemistry—and was elected a Fellow of the

in 2019. In 2021, she was awarded the Henri Moissan International Prize for her work in fluorine chemistry. In 2022, she received the Arthur C. Cope Award conferred by the

and was elected to the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (The Academy) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and other ...

. In 2022, she also received the European Chemical Society's award for Female Organic Chemist of the Year. In 2024 Gouverneur was awarded Royal Society The Davy Medal for contributions to the field of fluorine chemistry with applications in both medicine and positron emission tomography imaging.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gouverneur, Veronique 1964 births 20th-century chemists 21st-century chemists 20th-century Belgian scientists 21st-century Belgian scientists 20th-century British scientists 21st-century British scientists 20th-century British women scientists 21st-century British women scientists Belgian chemists British chemists Belgian women chemists British women chemists Living people Academics of the University of Oxford Fellows of Merton College, Oxford Female fellows of the Royal Society Statutory Professors of the University of Oxford Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences