¡¡¡¡Autobiography of Nobel Prize Winner:Jean-Marie Lehn

¡¡¡¡by Jeanª²Marie Lehn Íõºã¡¡Òë

¡¡¡¡I was born on September 30 1939 in Rosheim, a small medieval city of Alsace in France. My father, Pierre Lehn, then a baker, was very interested in music, played the piano and the organ and became later, having given up the bakery, the organist of the city. My mother Marie kept the house and the shop. I was the eldest of four sons and helped out in the shop with my first brother. I grew up in Rosheim during the years of the second world war, went to primary school after the war and, at age eleven, I entered high school located in Obernai, a small city about five kilometers from Rosheim. During these years I began to play the piano and the organ, and with time music has become my major interest outside science. My high school studies from 1950 to 1957 were in classics, with Latin, Greek, German, and English languages, French literature and, during the last year, philosophy, on which I was especially keen. However, I also became interested in sciences, especially chemistry, so that I obtained the baccalaur¨¦at1 in Philosophy in July 1957 and in Experimental Sciences in September of the same year.

¡¡¡¡I envisaged2 to study philosophy at the University of Strasbourg, but being still undecided, I began with first year courses in physical, chemical and natural sciences. During this year 1957/58, I was impressed by the coherent3 and rigorous4 structure of organic chemistry. I was particularly receptive5 to the experimental power of organic chemistry, which was able to convert1 at will2, it seemed, complicated substances into one another following well defined rules and routes. I bought myself compounds and glassware and began performing laboratory practice experiments at my parents¡¯ home. The seed was sown3, so that when, the next year, I followed the stimulating4 lectures of a newly appointed young professor, Guy Ourisson, it became clear to me that I wanted to do research in organic chemistry.

¡¡¡¡After having obtained the degree of Licenci¨¦¨¨s Sciences (Bachelor), I entered Ourisson's laboratory in October of 1960. This was the first decisive stage of my training. My work was concerned with conformational5 and physicoª²cheª² mical properties of triterpenes6. Being in charge of our first NMR7 spectrometer8, I was led to penetrate more deeply into the arcanes9 of this very powerful physical method; this was to be of much importance for later studies.

¡¡¡¡Having obtained my degree of Docteur ¨¨s Sciences (Ph.D.) in June of 1963, I spent a year in the laboratory of Robert Burns Woodward at Harvard University. This was the second decisive stage of my life as a researcher. I also followed a course in quantum mechanics and performed my first computations with Roald Hoffmann. I had the chance to witness in 1964 the initial stages of what was to become the Woodwardª²Hoffmann rules10.

¡¡¡¡After my return to Strasbourg, I began to work in the area of physical organic chemistry, where I could combine the knowledge acquired in organic chemistry, in quantum theory and on physical methods.

¡¡¡¡I was promoted associate professor in early 1970 and full professor in October of the same year. I took over the chemistry laboratory of the Coll¨¨ge de France in 1980 and thereafter divided my time between the two laboratories in Strasbourg and in Paris, a situation continuing up to the present.