Perfil

Pierre H. Dixneuf obtained his doctorate of Science in Rennes, in 1971 with René Dabard on ferrocene chemistry, and did postdoctoral work on the first steps of NHeterocyclic Carbene-Metal complexes with Michael F. Lappert, University of Brighton, UK, in 1971-12. He became professor at the University of Rennes in 1978, and “classe exceptionelle” professor in 1994.
His research interests in Rennes first included iron and ruthenium complexes chemistry. In 1985 he shifted to catalysis with ruthenium catalysts and created a catalysis research team. He developed selective catalytic transformations of alkynes and incorporation of CO2, leading to vinylcarbamates and functional carbonates, rutheniumvinylidenes and -allenylidenes in catalysis, alkene metathesis catalysis for the catalytic transformations of plant oils.
He has contributed to C–H bond activation/functionalization using ruthenium(II) catalysts especially in water and to the functionalisation of pyridine and phosphine C-H bonds, and recently he cooperated on interrupted hydrogenations for innovative syntheses.
He has co-authored more than 490 publications and reviews (60 in the last 10 years 2014-2024), co-edited 7 books. His work has been acknowledged with several international prizes : A. von Humboldt prize 1990, Le Bel SFC award 2000 and Grignard-Wittig Prize (GDCh) 2001, Institut universitaire de France 2000-2010, academie des sciences IFP prize, Sacconi medal (Italy) 2006, Spanish- and Chinese Society of Chemistry award in 2014 and the 2021 Luso Prize of the Chemical Society of Portugal.
He became a fellow of the European Academy Sciences & Arts in 2014, the Academy of Sciences of Lisbon in 2017, the National Academy Sciences of India in 2020 and the Academia Europaea in 2022.
He is currently an Emeritus Research Professor at the University of Rennes, where he directed the CNRS research unit “organométalliques et Catalyse” 1986-1999, founded the “CNRS research Institut de chimie de Rennes” in 2000 and was Rennes University vice-president for research in 2001-2004.