Alain Fuchs (10 April 1953 – 8 December 2024) was a Swiss-born French chemist. A Doctor of Science and Professor of Chemistry, he specialised in molecular simulation. Fuchs served as the president of Chimie ParisTech - PSL from 2006 to 2010. He also served as the president of the French National Centre for Scientific Research from 2010 to 2017. Fuchs became an Officer of the Legion of Honour in 2014.
From 24 October 2017 until 26 June 2024, Fuchs was president of PSL University (Paris Sciences & Lettres).
Biography Alain Fuchs graduated as a Chemical engineer (1975) at EPFL. In 1983, he became a doctor in Physical Chemistry at Université Paris-Sud (now Paris-Saclay University; his dissertation was "Cristaux vitreux et transition vitreuse" (about glass crystals).Alain Fuchs Cristaux vitreux et transition vitreuse - Université Paris-Sud - 1983 – Doctoral advisor : Henri Szwarc - Dissertation number: 1983PA112380 - SUDOC website - Worldcat : 490643197 He was also a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Edinburgh (1984–1985).
Career Fuchs joined CNRS in 1985 as a research fellow. He became a research director in 1991. In 1995, he became chemistry professor at Université Paris-Sud. Between 2000 and 2005, he set up and directed the Laboratory of Physical Chemistry (UMR 8000) at Campus d'Orsay. He also worked as the President of the agrégation in chemistry from 1998 to 2001 and he directed the Section 13 of the Comité national de la recherche scientifique between 2004 and 2008. He was also Professor at the Université Pierre et Marie Curie (UPMC) in thermodynamics and statistical thermodynamics, intermolecular and surface forces, molecular simulation techniques, history of chemistry and physical chemistry. He served as the president of Chimie ParisTech from 2006 to 2010.
In January 2010, he was appointed President of the CNRS, succeeding Catherine Bréchignac (former President) d'Arnold Migus (former managing director).Décret du 21 janvier 2010 portant nomination du président du Centre national de la recherche scientifique, JORF n°0018 du 22 janvier 2010 page 1427, texte n° 90 Fuchs's mandate ended in 2014. After holding the position in interim for one month, Arrêté du 10 janvier 2014 portant attribution de fonctions au Centre national de la recherche scientifique, JORF n°0013 du 16 janvier 2014 page 760 texte n° 46 he was appointed again by the Ministry of Higher Education. Décret du 27 février 2014 portant nomination du président du Centre national de la recherche scientifique, JORF n°0050 du 28 février 2014 page 3943 texte n° 112
In October 2017, Fuchs quit the position of CNRS President and became the President of Université PSL (collegiate university including 9 members and 10 associate members). He left the position for personal reasons in June 2024.
Death Fuchs died in Paris on 8 December 2024, at the age of 71.
Fields of research His research activity was dedicated to the theory, modelling and molecular thermodynamics of fluids confined in various types of porous materials modeling and molecular simulation of confined fluids. "Forced intrusion of water and aqueous solutions in microporous materials: from fundamental thermodynamics to energy storage devices" (Chem. Soc. Rev.,46 (2017)) or "On the use of the IAST method for gas separation studies in porous materials with gate-opening behavior" (Adsorption, 24 (2018)) are part of his last recent and major publications.
Alain Fuchs was a member of the Academia Europaea and he was a member of the editorial board of the journal Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics.
Fuchs co-authored two books:
Major works
Honours and awards Knight of (1996) Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (2006) Knight of the Legion of Honour (2010) Décret du 13 juillet 2010 portant promotion et nomination, JORF n°0161 du 14 juillet 2010 page 13049, texte n° 4 Officer of the National Order of Merit (2014) Officer of the National Order of Quebec (2014)
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