The Grand Prix 2018 de la Fondation de la Maison de la Chimie has been awarded jointly to Thomas Ebbesen (pictured left), University of Strasbourg, France, and Susumu Kitagawa (pictured right), University of Kyoto, Japan, for their contributions to materials science.
The award was presented during a ceremony at the Maison de la Chimie in Paris, France, on February 13, 2019. The prize honors “original work in chemistry, of benefit to mankind, society, or nature” and comprises 50,000 EUR and a silver medal.
Thomas Ebbesen, 1954 in Oslo, Norway, studied chemistry at Oberlin College, OH, USA, and received his Ph.D. from Pierre et Marie Curie University in Paris, France. He worked at the Notre Dame Radiation Laboratory, IN, USA, at the NEC Fundamental Research Laboratories in Tsukuba, Japan, and at the NEC Research Institute in Princeton, NJ, USA. He became a Professor at the University of Strasbourg in 1999. Thomas Ebbesen is currently the Head of the Center for Frontier Research in Chemistry and the Strasbourg Institute for Advanced Studies.
His research focuses on light-matter interactions. His interests include plasmonics, the optical control of particle flow, and the use of chiral optical forces. Ebbensen is honored “for his work in the field of nanosciences, especially on the interaction of synthetic compounds with light, paving the way for new materials with innovative electronic properties”.
Susumu Kitagawa, born 1951 in Japan, received his Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of Kyoto in 1979. He became Assistant Professor at Kindai University, Japan, in 1979 and was promoted to Lecturer in 1983 and to Associate Professor in 1988. Kitagawa joined Tokyo Metropolitan University, Japan, in 1992 as Professor of Inorganic Chemistry and became Professor of Inorganic Functional Chemistry at the University of Kyoto in 1998. Today, he is Director of the Institute for Integrated Cell-Material Sciences there.
Susumu Kitagawa’s research focuses on coordination chemistry and porous materials. Kitagawa is honored “for his work on the design and synthesis of functional porous materials, better known as porous coordination polymers (PCPs) or metal–organic frameworks (MOFs), with innovative properties for photochemistry, catalysis, and gas separation”.
Selected Publications by Thomas Ebbesen
- π-Electronic Co-crystal Microcavities with Selective Vibronic-Mode Light Amplification: Toward Förster Resonance Energy Transfer Lasing,
Daichi Okada, Stefano Azzini, Hiroki Nishioka, Anna Ichimura, Hayato Tsuji, Eiichi Nakamura, Fumio Sasaki, Cyriaque Genet, Thomas W. Ebbesen, Yohei Yamamoto,
Nano Lett. 2018, 18, 4396–4402.
https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.nanolett.8b01442 - Room-Temperature Valley Polarization and Coherence in Transition Metal Dichalcogenide–Graphene van der Waals Heterostructures,
Etienne Lorchat, Stefano Azzini, Thibault Chervy, Takashi Taniguchi, Kenji Watanabe, Thomas W. Ebbesen, Cyriaque Genet, Stéphane Berciaud,
ACS Photonics 2018, 5, 5047–5054.
https://doi.org/10.1021/acsphotonics.8b01306 - Mueller Polarimetry of Chiral Supramolecular Assembly,
Anoop Thomas, Thibault Chervy, Stefano Azzini, Minghao Li, Jino George, Cyriaque Genet, Thomas W. Ebbesen,
J. Phys. Chem. C 2018, 122, 14205–14212.
https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jpcc.8b01867 - Modifying Chemical Landscapes by Coupling to Vacuum Fields,
James A. Hutchison, Tal Schwartz, Cyriaque Genet, Eloïse Devaux, Thomas W. Ebbesen,
Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2012, 51, 1592–1596.
https://doi.org/10.1002/anie.201107033 - Bright Unidirectional Fluorescence Emission of Molecules in a Nanoaperture with Plasmonic Corrugations,
Heykel Aouani, Oussama Mahboub, Nicolas Bonod, Eloïse Devaux, Evgeny Popov, Hervé Rigneault, Thomas W. Ebbesen, Jérôme Wenger,
Nano Lett. 2011, 11, 637–644.
https://doi.org/10.1021/nl103738d - Plasmonic photon sorters for spectral and polarimetric imaging,
Eric Laux, Cyriaque Genet, Torbjorn Skauli, Thomas W. Ebbesen,
Nat. Photonics 2008, 2, 161–164.
https://doi.org/10.1038/nphoton.2008.1
Selected Publications by Susumu Kitagawa
- Design and control of gas diffusion process in a nanoporous soft crystal,
Cheng Gu, Nobuhiko Hosono, Jia-Jia Zheng, Yohei Sato, Shinpei Kusaka, Shigeyoshi Sakaki, Susumu Kitagawa,
Science 2019, 363, 387–391.
https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aar6833 - Accumulation of Glassy Poly(ethylene oxide) Anchored in a Covalent Organic Framework as a Solid-State Li+ Electrolyte,
Gen Zhang, You-lee Hong, Yusuke Nishiyama, Songyan Bai, Susumu Kitagawa, Satoshi Horike,
J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2018, 141, 1227–1234.
https://doi.org/10.1021/jacs.8b07670 - Highly responsive nature of porous coordination polymer surfaces imaged by in situ atomic force microscopy,
Nobuhiko Hosono, Aya Terashima, Shinpei Kusaka, Ryotaro Matsuda, Susumu Kitagawa,
Nat. Chem. 2018, 11, 109–116.
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41557-018-0170-0 - Metal–Organic Frameworks (MOFs),
Hong-Cai “Joe” Zhou, Susumu Kitagawa,
Chem. Soc. Rev. 2014, 43, 5415–5418.
https://doi.org/10.1039/c4cs90059f - Soft porous crystals,
Satoshi Horike, Satoru Shimomura, Susumu Kitagawa,
Nat. Chem. 2009, 1, 695–704.
https://doi.org/10.1038/nchem.444 - Nanoporous Nanorods Fabricated by Coordination Modulation and Oriented Attachment Growth,
Takaaki Tsuruoka, Shuhei Furukawa, Yohei Takashima, Kaname Yoshida, Seiji Isoda, Susumu Kitagawa,
Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2009, 48, 4739–4743.
https://doi.org/10.1002/anie.200901177
Also of Interest
- Grand Prix 2016 de la Fondation de la Maison de la Chimie,
ChemViews Mag. 2017.
Professor Emeritus Vincenzo Balzani, Bologna, Italy honored - Grand Prix 2014 de la Fondation de la Maison de la Chimie,
ChemViews Mag. 2015.
Jean-Pierre Sauvage, Louis Pasteur University, Strasbourg, France, honored
