Dominique Matt
Dominique Matt is a research director (DR1) in the CNRS and leads a research group within the Chemistry Institute of the University of Strasbourg. Following a PhD (1980), he was a research associate at the ETH-Zurich for 14 months with Professor L. M. Venanzi, then group leader at the central laboratories of BASF-Ludwigshafen with Professor Reif, where he developed a new process for the synthesis of acetic acid. Joining the CNRS in 1983, he participated in a reseach program for the utilisation of carbon dioxide and discovered a highly efficient palladium-catalyst for the co-oligomerisation of butadiene and CO2. In 1990, he was offered a post in the Ecole Nationale Supérieure de Chimie in Strasbourg. Promoted director of research in 1991, his initial interest was in the development of multifunctional extractants for selective complexation of metal ions, notably actinides and lanthanides. At this time he began his research on supramolecular catalysis, which subsequently became his principal research interest, centered on the chemistry of metallocavitands derived from calixarenes, resorcinarenes and cyclodextrins. His most important recent results concern the synthesis of molecular complexes characterised by the presence of a catalytic centre confined within a cavity as well as the discovery of very active catalysts based on calixarenes and cyclodextrins. Seven patents, deposited in the names of CEA, SNPE, BASF, and ULP, have resulted from this research. In total, he is the author of over 230 publications. He received the catalysis prize of the French Chemical Society (FCS) in 1991, and that of the coordination chemistry division of the SFC in 2006. He has been an invited Professor in several overseas universities (Kyoto, Sao Paulo, Shanghai, Zanjan, Porto Alegre). Since 1999, he has given an annual course in transition metal organometallic chemistry and homogeneous catalysis at the University of Saarbrücken.
As part of his Fellowship, Dominique Matt is working on the project Towards catalysis inside molecular capsules.