Christophe Copéret, from the Swiss Chemical Society, was re-elected to the EuChemS Executive Board during the 2020 General Assembly that was held online on 24 September. His second-term starts on 1 January 2021.

Meet Christophe Copéret

Prof. Christophe Copéret (CCH) was trained in chemistry and chemical engineering in CPE Lyon (France) and then undertook a Ph.D. in chemistry at Purdue University (USA), where he studied the development of highly efficient synthesis of complex molecules via Pd-catalyzed carbonylation reactions in the group of Prof. E.i. Negishi (1991-1996). After a postdoctoral stay at the Scripps Research Institute (La Jolla, USA) in the group of Prof. K.B. Sharpless (1996-1997), where he developed oxidation reactions, CCH was offered in 1998 a permanent research position in CNRS in C2P2 a laboratory devoted the chemistry of surfaces and polymers, and was promoted CNRS Research Director in 2008. Since Nov, 1st 2010, CCH is Professor in the Department of Chemistry and Applied Biosciences at ETH Zürich. CCH is currently the Editor in Chief of Helvetica and belongs to the advisory boards of several journals. CCH is also a board member of the Swiss Chemical Society, ScienceIndustries, and is the President of Platform Chemistry of Swiss Academy of Science (SCNat). Besides scientific activities, CCH enjoys literature, history, cooking and wine tasting, probably a reminiscence of his childhood spent in the vineyards in Fleurie, one of the famous crû of Beaujolais (La Reine) just 50 km North of Lyon.

His scientific interest lies at the frontiers of molecular, material and surface chemistry, with the aims to design functional materials with applications in catalysis (sustainable chemistry and energy), molecular recognition, imaging, and microelectronics. For instance, our group has led major efforts in the synthesis and the molecular-level understanding of the surface chemistry of nanoparticles, in particular, metal oxides, towards the design of well-defined – so-called single-site – heterogeneous catalysts. In particular, we have developed alkene metathesis catalysts with unprecedented catalytic performances, elucidated the reaction mechanism of alkane conversion processes and have provided a molecular-level understanding of industrial catalysts. Our approach is mechanistically driven and relies on the combination of detailed spectroscopic investigations (in particular NMR) and computational studies. It is thus of no surprise that we are currently involved in the development of Surface Enhanced Dynamic Nuclear Polarization NMR spectroscopy, which allows obtaining an unprecedented level of details in the characterization of surface sites (NMR crystallography).

More:
– Christophe Copéret’s CV
– Connect with him on LinkedIn