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Jean-Claude Volta on the occasion of his retirement
Applied Catalysis A: General 325 (2007) 193 www.elsevier.com/locate/apcata
Preface
Jean-Claude Volta on the occasion of his retirement A fascinating great scientist, a lively colleague and a nice fellow Jean-Claude Volta was born in Givors near Lyon, France in 1946. He received a chemical engineer degree at the ‘‘Ecole Supe´rieure de Chimie Industrielle de Lyon’’ ESCIL, in 1968 and his ‘‘Doctorat e`s Sciences’’ in 1973 from the University of Lyon. His scientific career was almost entirely at the ‘‘Institut de Recherches sur la Catalyse’’ IRC, CNRS in Villeurbanne (Lyon). He retired in March 2006 as ‘‘Directeur de Recherche au CNRS’’, after being at the head of the Oxide group. Everyone will remember him as an enthusiastic and brilliant scientist who contributed enormously to the scientific and social life of the Institute over 30 years. He was a lively figure at International conferences, often addressing searching question in his charmingly accented English. He was awarded the annual price by the Catalysis division of the French Chemical Society in1984 for his major contribution in ‘‘structure sensitivity’’ of metallic oxides for catalytic selective oxidation of hydrocarbons. His case study was MoO3 single crystals. He has more than 150 publications and patents in the field of oxidation catalysis in which he is world famous. His contribution to VPO catalysts for butane oxidation to maleic anhydride was important and outstanding. He has developed the spin echo mapping technique in MAS-NMR with Dr. Alain Tuel (IRC), pioneered in situ/Operando Raman studies with Professor Ollier at Ecole Centrale de Lyon and HR-TEM with Professor Chris Kiely (University of Liverpool, UK, now at Lehigh University, USA). Jean-Claude was a founding member of the CONCORDE (CO-ordination of Nanostructured Catalytic Oxides Research and Development in Europe) network and played a vital role in discussions leading to its formation. On the occasion of its
0926-860X/$ – see front matter # 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.apcata.2007.03.026
second conference in Thessaloniki in January 2006, the members of the network decided that it would be appropriate to organise the proceeding of the workshop to honour his retirement. This special issue was organised by his friends and colleagues inside and outside the network to express their respect and recognition to Jean-Claude Volta on the occasion of his retirement and to mark in a small way his great contribution to the field of structure sensitivity and selective oxidation in heterogeneous catalysis. J.-M. Millet Institut de Recherches sur la Catalyse et l’Environnement de Lyon, 2 av. A. Einstein F69626 Villeurbanne Cedex, France B.K. Hodnett* University of Limerick, Materials & Surface Science Institute, Limerick, Ireland J.C. Vedrine Ecole Nationale Supe´rieure de Chimie de Paris, 11 rue P. et M. Curie, Paris, 75005, France *Corresponding author. Tel.: +353 61 202246; fax: +353 61 213529 E-mail address: [email protected] (B.K. Hodnett) Available online 30 March 2007
Preface
Jean-Claude Volta on the occasion of his retirement A fascinating great scientist, a lively colleague and a nice fellow Jean-Claude Volta was born in Givors near Lyon, France in 1946. He received a chemical engineer degree at the ‘‘Ecole Supe´rieure de Chimie Industrielle de Lyon’’ ESCIL, in 1968 and his ‘‘Doctorat e`s Sciences’’ in 1973 from the University of Lyon. His scientific career was almost entirely at the ‘‘Institut de Recherches sur la Catalyse’’ IRC, CNRS in Villeurbanne (Lyon). He retired in March 2006 as ‘‘Directeur de Recherche au CNRS’’, after being at the head of the Oxide group. Everyone will remember him as an enthusiastic and brilliant scientist who contributed enormously to the scientific and social life of the Institute over 30 years. He was a lively figure at International conferences, often addressing searching question in his charmingly accented English. He was awarded the annual price by the Catalysis division of the French Chemical Society in1984 for his major contribution in ‘‘structure sensitivity’’ of metallic oxides for catalytic selective oxidation of hydrocarbons. His case study was MoO3 single crystals. He has more than 150 publications and patents in the field of oxidation catalysis in which he is world famous. His contribution to VPO catalysts for butane oxidation to maleic anhydride was important and outstanding. He has developed the spin echo mapping technique in MAS-NMR with Dr. Alain Tuel (IRC), pioneered in situ/Operando Raman studies with Professor Ollier at Ecole Centrale de Lyon and HR-TEM with Professor Chris Kiely (University of Liverpool, UK, now at Lehigh University, USA). Jean-Claude was a founding member of the CONCORDE (CO-ordination of Nanostructured Catalytic Oxides Research and Development in Europe) network and played a vital role in discussions leading to its formation. On the occasion of its
0926-860X/$ – see front matter # 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.apcata.2007.03.026
second conference in Thessaloniki in January 2006, the members of the network decided that it would be appropriate to organise the proceeding of the workshop to honour his retirement. This special issue was organised by his friends and colleagues inside and outside the network to express their respect and recognition to Jean-Claude Volta on the occasion of his retirement and to mark in a small way his great contribution to the field of structure sensitivity and selective oxidation in heterogeneous catalysis. J.-M. Millet Institut de Recherches sur la Catalyse et l’Environnement de Lyon, 2 av. A. Einstein F69626 Villeurbanne Cedex, France B.K. Hodnett* University of Limerick, Materials & Surface Science Institute, Limerick, Ireland J.C. Vedrine Ecole Nationale Supe´rieure de Chimie de Paris, 11 rue P. et M. Curie, Paris, 75005, France *Corresponding author. Tel.: +353 61 202246; fax: +353 61 213529 E-mail address: [email protected] (B.K. Hodnett) Available online 30 March 2007