Highlighting the DCO‐SCF 2020 Award Winners – A Valuable Collaboration with EurJOC

Abstract

For the first time, the Division de Chimie Organique (DCO) of the Société Chimique de France (SCF) and the European Journal of Organic Chemistry join forces to celebrate the awardees of the Prix de la Division 2020. For the first time, the Division de Chimie Organique (DCO) of the Société Chimique de France (SCF) and the European Journal of Organic Chemistry join forces to celebrate the awardees of the Prix de la Division 2020. This collaboration is in fact very natural as the European Journal of Organic Chemistry is one of the Chemistry Europe journals owned by the European chemical societies, including the SCF. It also became obvious to both entities that tightening our bonds would be mutually beneficial. This rapprochement has been underway for some time now, but it had not yet been translated into concrete action. The pandemic has spurred us to take this step! We organized the first joined virtual meeting: the “EurJOC-Journée de la DCO” on September 30, 2020, with an exceptional line up of speakers: Frances Arnold, Thomas Carell, Jean-François Nierengarten, Xavier Bugaut, and Ludovic Favereau. This event was followed by over 800 viewers and the discussion after each talk proved that they were actually listening! In addition to organizing scientific meetings, the mission of the DCO-SCF is to promote its members at every stage of their career: from the end of the PhD to their achievement as renowned researchers. To this end, the DCO awards eight prizes to its members each year. Two PhD prizes called Dina Surdin and Henri Kagan Prizes are awarded to students having defended their thesis in the previous year. In 2020 Yannick Geiger (currently University of Groningen) received the Prix Henri Kagan. Dr. Yannick Geiger has performed his PhD work under the guidance of Dr. Stéphane Bellemin-Laponnaz at the University of Strasbourg on the use of chiral metallopolymers as materials in nonlinear optics, as well as nonlinear effects in asymmetric catalysis, a topic dear to…Henri Kagan! Dr. Clément Ghiazza (currently at the Max-Planck-Institut für Kohlenforschung) was awarded the Prix Dina Surdin for his PhD work under the supervision of Dr. Thierry Billard and Dr. Anis Tlili at the University of Lyon. His thesis work focused on the development of new synthetic methodologies for the preparation of fluoroalkylselenated compounds by using copper catalysis, photochemistry and photoredox catalysis, as well as electrochemistry. The next step in the carreer is awarded by the Prix Emergence Marc Julia, which is devoted to researchers who obtained their PhD in the previous six years. In 2020, Angélique Ferry (Université de Cergy-Pontoise) received this prize. Angélique Ferry did her PhD under the guidance of Prof. David Crich and Dr. Xavier Guinchard at the ICSN in Gif-sur-Yvette, on the synthesis of phostone and hydroxylamine-type glycomimetics. She then joined the group of Prof. Franck Glorius in Münster (Germany) as a postdoc to work on C−H activation and new carbenes for the generation of metallic nanoparticles. She is now Maître de Conférences (Assistant professor) in the team of Prof. Nadège Lubin-Germain at the University CY Cergy-Paris, where she develops new metallo-catalyzed accesses to nonnatural glycosides. The Jean-Pierre Sauvage prize for non-teaching researchers in their career for less than eight years, was attributed to Jean-François Soulé (Université de Rennes). Jean-François Soulé did his PhD with Prof. Jean-Marie Beau and Dr. Stéphanie Norsikian at the ICSN in Gif-sur-Yvette on multicomponent reactions for the synthesis of new biologically active molecules. He was then appointed Chargé de Recherche at CNRS at the Univesity of Rennes in the group of Dr. Henri Doucet, where he works on regioselective C−H activation. The Prix Jean Normant, who rewards a professor with less than eight years into their career was attributed to Julie Oble from Sorbonne University. Julie Oble conducted her PhD at the Ecole Polytechnique with Drs. Laurence Grimaud and Laurent El Kaim on multicomponent reactions. After a Postdoctoral stay with Prof. André Charette at the University of Montréal (Canada), where she worked on asymmetric catalysis, she was appointed Maître de Conférences (Assistant professor) at the Sorbonne University, in the team of Prof. Giovanni Poli. Her research work focuses on the development of new transition-metal-catalyzed domino reactions applied to heterocycle synthesis, C−H activation reactions by homogeneous and quasi-homogeneous catalysis, as well as on biomass valorization. For researchers with 8 to 15 years of experience, the Jean-Marie Lehn Prize rewards a blossoming career. In 2020, the DCO awarded this prize to two equally deserving researchers: Julien Leclaire (University of Lyon) and Arnaud Voituriez (ICSN, Gif-sur-Yvette). Julien Leclaire did his PhD at the University Paul Sabatier in Toulouse with Dr. Jean-Pierre Majoral on phosphorous-based dendrimers. He then joined Prof. Jeremy K. M. Sanders group at the University of Cambridge to study dynamic combinatorial chemistry of sulfur-containing molecules. He was first appointed Maitre de Conférences at the Ecole Centrale Marseille, where he studied molecular and supramolecular interactions involved in enzymatic lipolysis before getting a full professorship at the University of Lyon. He now uses dynamic combinatorial chemistry for the recognition and extraction of high value-added molecules from complex mixtures, biological extracts or industrial waste. His work focuses in particular on the design of reversible molecular systems and architectures derived from CO2 capture and their valorization in the circular economy. Arnaud Voituriez did his PhD at the University Paris-Sud, Orsay with Dr. Emmanuelle Schulz on new chiral sulfur ligands for homogeneous asymmetric catalysis. He then moved to the University of Montreal (Canada) in the group of André B. Charette for a postdoctoral stay, during which he studied the asymmetric Simmons–Smith cyclopropanation reaction. A second postdoc brought him back to Paris to work with Fabrice Chemla on the asymmetric synthesis of acetylenic 2-amino-1,3-diols. Eventually, he was hired by the CNRS as Chargé de Recherche to work at the Institut de Chimie des Substances Naturelles (ICSN, Gif-sur-Yvette) with Dr. Angela Marinetti. He was since promoted to Directeur de Recherche (Research Professor). He develops with his group a series of projects on phosphorous and chirality: enantiopure chiral phosphines, with planar or helical chirality, for use in asymmetric catalysis, organocatalysis, and organometallic catalysis, and P(III)/P(V) redox catalysis. A prize also recognizes an exceptional contribution in the industrial area which is called the Yves Chauvin Prize, but it was not attributed this year. Finally, the most prestigious prize of the DCO is the Prix DCO which was awarded to Jeanne Crassous (University of Rennes). Jeanne Crassous conducted her PhD research on the absolute configuration of bromochlorofluoromethane (HCFClBr) at the ENS Lyon, under the supervision of Prof. André Collet. She then went across the border to conduct postdoctoral work on the chirality in fullerenes at the ETH Zürich (Switzerland) under the supervision of Prof. François Diederich. In 1998, she was recruited as CNRS Research Associate at the ENS Lyon and collaborated with Jean-Pierre Dutasta and Laure Guy. In 2005, she joined Régis Réau's group at the University of Rennes. In 2010, she was promoted to CNRS Research Director (Research Professor). She leads a group working on chiral π-conjugate systems. Since the beginning of her scientific career, she has been fascinated by chirality. She investigated stereochemical problems in a wide range of chiral structures, such as heterohalogenomethanes, fullerenes, cryptophanes and hemicryptophanes, helicenes or organometallic complexes. With physicists from Villetaneuse, she is interested in fundamental phenomena: the effects of parity violation in chiral molecules. She also studies pure enantiomers by chiroptical spectroscopic techniques (electronic and vibrational circular dichroism, circularly polarized luminescence). In Rennes, she develops the chemistry of heteroatomic and organometallic helices, and thus creates original helical structures with innovative properties, for applications as chiroptic switches or chiral emitters in OLEDs. As part of the collaboration between the DCO-SCF and EurJOC, all awardees were invited to contribute an original research article or a review to EurJOC, which also offered the opportunity to highlight their article on the front cover of EurJOC free of charge (Figure 1). Very satisfyingly, and for that I thank all the awardees, all of them replied positively and contributed with four reviews and four original research articles! EurJOC Front Covers designed by the 2020 awardees. We now have a very fine collection of articles highlighting the beautiful chemistry done by DCO-SCF members, I hope all readers will appreciate it and cite them! I would also like to emphasize how rewarding and positive the collaboration between EurJOC and the DCO is, and I encourage our colleagues of the other European chemical societies to emulate it. We would then be taking a step towards a European society that would truly unite European chemists.