Chemistry in France: A Hotbed for New Schools of Thought

How is chemistry standing in the land of Lavoisier, while we re celebrating the 100th anniversary of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry to Paul Sabatier and Victor Grignard, within a rapidly changing higher education and research landscape? France has a long-standing tradition of research and innovation in chemistry, and its chemical industry (ranked fifth in the world) is still a strong pillar of French economic development. More than 3300 chemical companies directly employ 2 people (inducing 6 indirect jobs). Most of these are small or medium companies, together with some large industrial groups such as Total, Arkema, Rhodia, Michelin, and Air Liquide. This strong industrial activity has generated, in the first part of the 20th century, the foundation of several chemistry and chemical engineering graduate schools all over the country, attracting very good students educated as chemical engineers to amasters level. On the academic side, some 5300 researchers and 2700 technical staff work in chemistry laboratories and teams, located in the most important French academic cities. All of the main research topics are addressed in the core of chemical science and in all of its interfaces with physics (such as materials science, nanosciences, soft matter, spectroscopies), life sciences (medicinal chemistry, bioinspired chemistry, structural biology), and engineering (optoelectronic devices, energy storage, metallurgy).