Marie-Paule Pileni

Marie-Paule Pileni is a French physical chemist who was born in Tananarive, Madagascar. She is a Distinguished Professor at the Université Pierre et Marie Curie (UPMC) and a Senior Member, since 1999, and administrator (2004–2011) of the Institut Universitaire de France, IUF. She is the daughter of Christophe Pileni, chief administrator of French Overseas possessions and Marie-Pasquine Micheletti, President of the Red Cross. She studied, from 1961 to 1966, at the Maison d'éducation de la Légion d'honneur (school for children of Légion d’honneur members) then at the Université Pierre et Marie Curie (1967–1969) and at the Université Paris-Sud 11 (1970–1972). There she obtained an honors degree in physical chemistry (1968), a Ph.D (1969) and a D.Sc. (thèse du doctorat d’Etat) (1977). She became a demonstrator (1969–1974), assistant lecturer (1974–1983), associate professor (1983–1990) then full professor (1990–1997) and finally Distinguished Professor (since 1997). She was director, between 1996 and 2000, of the Structure and Reactivity of Interfaces Laboratory (SRI), a Université Pierre et Marie Curie - Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS) joint unit. Since 2004, she has been a professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology at Atlanta. In 2000, she created the Laboratoire des Matériaux Mésoscopiques et Nanométriques (LM2N) (Mesoscopic and Nanometric Materials Laboratory). Along with her research work in addition, to being administrator (2004–2010) of the Institut Universitaire de France IUF (as stated above), she was Auditor (1987–88) of the Institut des Hautes Etudes de Défense Nationale (National Defense Advanced Studies Institute), IHEDN, Auditor (1989), of the Institut des Hautes Etudes de Défense Européenne (European Defense Advanced Studies Institute) and (1990–91) of the Institut des Hautes Etudes de Sécurité Intérieure (Internal Security Advanced Studies Institute) (IHESI now INHESJ).

Scientific Honors and Awards

• 2000: Langmuir Prize of the American Chemical Society.
• 2001: French citation laureate, Institute of Scientific Information. Award for most quoted French scientist between 1981 and 1998.
• 2001: Lecture Award of Japanese Chemical Society, Division of Colloids and Surface Science.
• 2002: Doctorate honoris causa of the Chalmers Technical University.
• 2003: Senior research Award, Alexender von Humboldt Foundation, Germany.
• Since 2003: Member of the European Academy of Sciences.
• 2004: Descartes-Huygens Prize of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Science.
• Since 2004: Member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences.
• 2005: Blaise Pascal Medal of the European Academy of Science.
• 2006: Lecture for Marie Curie 100 years anniversary.
• 2006: Emilia Valori Prize of the French Academy of Science.
• Since 2009: Fellow of the Royal Chemical Socienty of the United Kingdom.
• Since 2010: Member of the Academia Europaea.
• 2011: Research Grants from the European Research Council.

Other honors

• 2006: Officier dans l’Ordre National du Mérite.
• 2009: Officier dans l’Ordre National de la Légion d’Honneur.

Major publications

• Reverse micelles as hosts for proteins and small molecules ; P.P. Luisi, M. Giomini, M.P. Pileni, B. Robinson ; Biochem. Biophys. Acta. 947, 209-216, (1988).
• Reverse micelles : a microreactors ; M.P. Pileni ; J. Phys.Chem. 97, 6961-6974 (1993).
• Nanosized Particles Made in Colloidal Assemblies ; M.P. Pileni ; Langmuir 13, 3266-3276 (1997).
• Nanocrystals self assemblies: fabrication and collective properties ; M.P. Pileni ; J. Phys. Chem. 105, 3358-3372 (2001).
• Mesostructured Fluids in oil rich regions: Structural and templating approaches ; M.P. Pileni ; Langmuir 17, 7476-7487 (2001).
• Role of soft colloidal templates in the control of size and shape of inorganic nanocrystals ; M.P. Pileni ; Nature Materials 2, 145-150 (2003).
• Control of the size and shape of inorganic nanocrystals at various scales from nano to macrodomains ; M.P. Pileni ; J. Phys. Chem. C 111, 9019-9038 (2007).
• Self-assembly of inorganic nanocrystals: Fabrication and collective intrinsic properties ; M.P. Pileni ; Acc. of Chem. Res. 40, 685-693 (2007).
• Supracrystals of inorganic nanocrystals: An open challenge for new physical properties ; M.P. Pileni ; Acc. Chem. Res. 41, 1799-1809 (2008).
• How to produce 2D self-organizations of inorganic nanocrystals and and how do they affect the chemical and physical properties ; M.P. Pileni ; Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys. 12, 11821-11835, (2010).
• Analogy Between Atoms in a Nanocrystal and Nanocrystals in a Supracrystal: Is It Real or Just a Highly Probable Speculation? ; N. Goubet, M. P. Pileni ; J. Phys. Chem. Lett. 2, 1024–1031, (2011).