Jean–Marie Lehn: From Matter to Life

Nobel prize winner Jean-Marie Lehn [* 1939 in Rosheim, France] studied chemistry in Strasbourg before spending a year as a post-doctoral fellow in Harvard. In 1970, he was appointed Professor of Chemistry at the Louis Pasteur University in Strasbourg. Since 1979, he has also held the chair of molecular interaction at the Collège de France in Paris, and is one of the directors of the Institute for Nano-Technology in Karlsruhe. Jean-Marie Lehn has published more than 500 articles and books, is a member, or honorary member, of numerous scientific academies and research institutes and has received several international prizes and awards. In 1987, he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry.

Lehn’s extensive work on the chemistry of molecular definition began with research into the synthesis of molecules with inner cavities, in which other chemical elements can be included. These trail-blazing discoveries opened up a whole new area of chemistry, which he referred to as supra-molecular chemistry.