Max Malacria - Biography#

Max Malacria studied in Marseille and obtained a PhD from the University of Aix-Marseille III under the direction of Professor Marcel Bertrand in 1974. His academic career began in Lyon in 1974 as an assistant in the laboratory of Professor Jacques Goré where he was quickly promoted to Master Assistant (1978). After spending two years as a NATO postdoctoral fellow at the University of California at Berkeley, under the direction of Professor K. Peter C. Vollhardt, he entered the University of Lyon I as Associate Professor in 1983. In 1985, he was appointed Professor of Organic Chemistry at the University Pierre and Marie Curie (UPMC-Paris). From July to September 1986, he returned to the University of California Berkeley as a Fulbright Fellow. He was named a junior member of the Institut Universitaire de France in 1991 and a senior member in 2002 and renewed in 2007. He was, among others, director of the Laboratory of Organic Chemistry (UMR 7611) for ten years, director of the School Doctorate of Molecular Chemistry of Paris Center (ED 406), elected member of the CNU (32nd section), delegate of the CPU for chemistry at the CNRS and member of the scientific council of the ANR. From 2009 to 2011, he created and was director of the Paris Institute of Molecular Chemistry (IPCM,UMR 7201) at UPMC, Director of the Molecular Chemistry Federation of Paris-Center, member of the scientific council of ERA-Net Chemistry, president of the EJOC Writing Committee (Wiley) and Chair of the ESOC Congress Organizing Committee 17. From 2007 to 2011, he was Scientific Delegate to the Agency for Evaluation of Research and Higher Education ( AERES). From 2011 until 2015, he was Director of the Institute of Chemistry of Natural Substances of Gif-sur-Yvette.

He structured his research activities around various topics including the development of new efficient and selective approaches for the synthesis of complex polycyclic systems by cascade processes involving transition metal catalysed reactions (Co, Au, Pt, Pd ) or radical processes, and on the other hand the construction of new hybrid materials for applications in biochemistry and physics. On the other hand, he has created links with the industrial world through various collaborations involving chemical and pharmaceutical companies.

He is the author of 347 publications, 20 book chapters and 12 patents and has directed or co-supervised 77 theses. Since 1987, he has lectured in 235 national and international events. He participated in the organization of 11 national and international conferences. In addition, he has been Guest Professor of several universities in Europe (Switzerland, Italy, Spain, Belgium) and the rest of the world (Japan, Israel, Taiwan, China, Australia).

His work earned him the SFC Organic Chemistry Prize (1997), the Grammaticakis-Newman Prize from the French Academy of Sciences (2000), the CNRS Silver Medal (2001) and the Catalan-Sabatier French-Spanish Prize. from the Real Sociedad Española de Química (2009) in 2011, the Wm. G. Dauben Award from the University of Berkeley and in 2014 the degree of Doctor Honoris Causa of Ottawa University and the Grand Prix Achille Le Bel.