Former president of the National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) and of the PSL (Paris Sciences & Lettres) University, the Franco-Swiss chemist alain Fuchs died on 8 december in paris, at the age of 71. The CNRS welcomed, in a press release, “a personality committed to the service of higher education and research in France”.
Born in Switzerland and educated at the Federal Polytechnic of Lausanne, he enrolled at the University of Paris-Sud for his thesis. His career, which began in experimental chemistry wiht the study of the thermodynamic properties of high-pressure fluids, continued with the growth of theoretical chemistry consisting of computer modeling of the structures and interactions between molecules. A pioneer in France on this topic, he became an expert in studying the properties of various porous molecules such as metal-organic networks or zeolites, promising such as for gas storage. In particular, he is interested in the behavior of fluids in these confined environments.
Fundamentally, this work remained closely linked to experimentation, and some were also carried out in collaboration with industrial groups, such as Total or GDF Suez. Despite his numerous managerial roles, he will never completely stop teaching and, above all, doing research; his latest work was released in December 2023.
Director of research at the CNRS, then university professor, he directed the National School of Chemistry in Paris, which became Chimie ParisTech, from 2006 to 2010, before taking over the leadership of the CNRS from 2010 to 2017.
He succeeded Catherine Bréchignac and became the organisation’s first president and CEO, following a reform of its governance, merging the previous positions of president and CEO. It will organise the CNRS in ten institutes and support the deployment of different structures of excellence with universities, the Excellence Initiatives (IdEx) and the Science-Innovation-Territories-Economy (Isite) initiatives, which strengthen links between research organizations and universities . With his stature as a former rugby player, he did not hesitate to speak up to defend his institution, criticizing for example, in 2012, an evaluation report of the institution, or, the same year, an analysis of the Academy of the sciences that he believed The CNRS is too bureaucratic.
