According to Nobel Prize laureate Jean-Marie Lehn, chemistry isn’t just part of the solution to humanity's biggest challenges: it is the solution! That’s because chemistry can create solutions that do not yet exist. Ilham and Professor Lehn have a fascinating conversation about chemistry and creativity, failure and serendipity in science, and how companies play a crucial role in bringing scientific solutions into the world.

Professor Jean-Marie Lehn is a French chemist known for his groundbreaking synthesis of cryptands, which led to an entirely new field of supramolecular chemistry. In 1987 he won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Donald Cram and Charles Pedersen for the “development and use of molecules with structure‐specific interactions of high selectivity”. He is a Professor at the University of Strasbourg Institute of Advanced Study and the Chair of Chemistry of Complex Systems. He is also the Director, Chemistry Laboratory of Molecular Interactions, at the Collège de France.

Timestamps
2:03 - Inspiration from school science teacher
5:40 - Supramolecular chemistry
7:29 - Chemistry: part of the solution
12:03 - A creative science
14:17 - Science, failure and serendipity
17:38 - Companies play an important role
23:40 - Diversity, equity and inclusion in science
26:38 - Love of classical music - and the connection to science
29:11 - Winning the Nobel Prize
30:40 - Chemistry and architecture

Syensqo is proud to partner with the Jean-Marie Lehn Foundation. Through this strategic collaboration, we are working together to achieve breakthroughs in the design of sustainable and ecological materials, and the synthesis of renewable and polyfunctional building blocks.

For additional details about the podcast, show notes, and access to resources mentioned during the show, please visit https://www.syensqo.com/en/podcast