Jean marie lehn biography template

Main publications
Dietrich, B., Lehn, J.-M., Sauvage, J.-P., Les Cryptates, Tet. Letters, p. 2889 (1969); Lehn, J.-M., Nitrogen inversion: experiment and theory, Fortschritte der chemischen Forschung, 15, p. 311 (1970), Springer-Verlag; Lehn, J.-M., Design of organic complexing agents. Strategies towards properties, Structure and Bonding, 16, p. 1 (1973); Lehn, J.-M., Cryptates: the chemistry of macropolycyclic inclusion complexes, Acc. Chem. Res., 11, p. 49 (1978); Lehn, J.-M., Cryptates: inclusion complexes of macropolycyclic receptor molecules, Pure & Appl. Chem., 50, p. 871, 1978; Lehn, J.-M., Macrocyclic receptor moleculaes: Aspects of chemical reactivity. Investigations into molecular catalysis and transport processes, Pure & Appl. Chem., 51, p. 979 (1979); Lehn, J.-M., Cryptate inclusion complexes. Effects on solute-solute and solute-solvent interactions and on ionic reactivity, Pure & Appl. Chem., 52, p. 2303 (1980); Lehn, J.-M., Chemistry of transport processes - Design of synthetic carrier molecules, Physical Chemistry of Transmembrane Ion Motions (G. Spach, ed.), p. 181 (Elsevier, 1983); Lehn, J.-M., Supramolecular chemistry: Receptors, catalysts and carriers, Science, 227, p. 849 (1985); Lehn, J.-M., Supramolecular chemistry - Scope and perspectives. Molecules, supermolecules, and molecular devices, (Nobel Lecture, 8.12.1987), Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. Engl., 27, pp. 89-112 (1988); Lehn, J.-M., Perspectives in supramolecular chemistry - From molecular recognition towards molecular information processing and self-organization, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. Engl., 29, p. 1304 (1990); Lehn, J.-M., Supramolecular Chemistry - Concepts and Perspectives, VCH (1995); Lehn, J.-M., Supramolecular chemistry/Science. Some conjectures and perspectives (R. Ungaro, E. Dalcanale, eds), Supramolecular Science: Where It is and Where It is Going, Kluwer Academic Publisher, pp. 287-304 (1999); Lehn, J.-M., Dynamic combinato

French chemist, Nobel laureate (born 1939)

Jean-Marie Lehn (born 30 September 1939) is a French chemist who received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry together with Donald Cram and Charles Pedersen in 1987 for his synthesis of cryptands. Lehn was an early innovator in the field of supramolecular chemistry, i.e., the chemistry of host–guest molecular assemblies created by intermolecular interactions, and continues to innovate in this field. He described the process by which molecules recognize each other. Drugs, for example, "know" which cell to destroy and which to let live. As of January 2006, his group has published 790 peer-reviewed articles in chemistry literature.

Biography

Early years

Lehn was born in Rosheim, Alsace, France to Pierre and Marie Lehn. He is of Alsatian German descent. His father was a baker, but because of his interest in music, he later became the city organist. Lehn also studied music, saying that it became his major interest after science. He has continued to play the organ throughout his professional career as a scientist. His high school studies in Obernai, from 1950 to 1957, included Latin, Greek, German, and English languages, French literature, and he later became very keen of both philosophy and science, particularly chemistry. In July 1957, he obtained the baccalauréat in philosophy, and in September of the same year, the baccalauréat in Natural Sciences.

At the University of Strasbourg, although he considered studying philosophy, he ended up taking courses in physical, chemical and natural sciences, attending the lectures of Guy Ourisson, and realizing that he wanted to pursue a research career in organic chemistry. He joined Ourisson's lab, working his way to the Ph.D. There, he was in charge of the lab's first NMR spectrometer, and published his first scientific paper, which pointed out an additivity rule for substituent induced shifts of

Lehn shared the 1987 chemistry prize with Donald Cram and Charles Pedersen for developing molecules that can ‘recognise’ each other and form highly specific complexes. Many biological events rely on such processes as in the binding of substrates to their receptors and antibodies to antigens. Chemists have dreamed of developing synthetic analogues.

In 1967, Pedersen (1904–89), a research chemist at Du Pont, synthesised cyclic polyethers, which he named crown ethers. These compounds had remarkable properties of binding selectively specific metal ions. Inspired by the related selective cation binding and transport of natural cyclic antibiotics, Lehn developed in 1968- 1969 cavity-containing bicyclic compounds termed cryptands that form cryptate inclusion complexes and function as cation transporters. Lehn and Cram (1919–2001) each developed sophisticated organic compounds presenting such features. Thus, for example, Lehn produced an artificial receptor molecule for acetylcholine, a mediator in nerve signal transmission. Lehn developed these studies of receptor-substrate molecular recognition processes into the general concept of supramolecular chemistry, extending beyond molecular chemistry and concerning the chemical entidies bound through intermolecular interactions.

A baker’s son, Lehn was born in Rosheim, Alsace, in 1939. The eldest of four sons, he had a classical education at the Collège Freppel in Obernai but he also became interested in science. At the University of Strasbourg he studied chemistry, gaining a BSc and then a PhD under the supervision of Guy Ourisson, before going on in 1963 to perform post-doctoral work in the laboratory of R.B. Woodward at Harvard, where he participated in the total synthesis of Vitamin B12 and took a course in quantum mechanics. Returning to Strasbourg, he became assistant professor and pursued research in physical organic and theoretical chemistry. It was known that electrical impulses in