Christian SERRE

Research Director, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique
Director of UMR8004 – Institut des Matériaux Poreux de Paris

ENS – Département de chimie
24 rue Lhomond, 75005 Paris

ESPCI
10 rue Vauquelin, 75005 Paris

Email: christian.serre@ens.psl.eu / christian.serre@espci.fr
Phone: +33 1 44 32 24 63
Office: E026G (ENS) / F04 (ESPCI)

Academic Career

• • Since 2016 : Head of the Institute des Matériaux Poreux de Paris, UMR CNRS 8004, Ecole Normale Supérieure, ESPCI Paris, PSL.
  • 01/01/2001-30/09/2009 : CNRS researcher, Institut Lavoisier, Université Versailles St Quentin (France).
  • 2009-2016 : CNRS Director of Research, Institut Lavoisier, CNRS Université Versailles St Quentin (France).
  • Since 01/2024, member of the French academy of Sciences

Education

• • 1990-1994 : Engineer from the Ecole Supérieure de Physique et de Chimie Industrielles de Paris (ESPCI), speciality : Soft Matter (3^d-4^th years).
  • 1994-1995 : MSc in Physical Chemistry, Université Paris VI (France), with honours.
  • 1996-1999 : PhD from the Université Versailles St-Quentin-en-Yvelines.
  • 2000 : Post-doctoral fellow at the CNRS-Rhodia- Princeton university joint laboratory (USA).

Production

>450 publications (Science, Nature, Nature sisters, JACS, ACIE, Chem (Soc) Rev, Chem Sci, Adv. Mater, Chem, Matter…). 10 book chapters.
H factor 139, > 90000 citations (google scholar).
>150 invited international Conferences or/Workshops.
42 patents filed (6 under license).
Cofounder of the startup SquairTech (France); associate member of the startup framergy (USA).

Funding ID

European Projects  : DeSANNS (2006-2008); ERC ‘BioMOFs’ (2008-2013); Macademia (2009-2013); Sotherco (2013-2016); M4CO2 (2014-2017); Gramofon (2016-2019); Nemosine (2018-2022); MOF4air (2019-2023); Methasol (2021-2025); MOF2H2 (2022-2025); Simiacci (2025-2028).
National grants : Matepro “Virmil” (2011-2015), Blanc “SAFHS” (2008-2011); CO2 “NoMAC” (2007-2010), Blanc CONDMOFs (2007-2010), Panache (H2) “Mathysse” (2007-2010), Blanc ‘MODS’ (2013-2016), Blanc Meacopa (2017-2021), Blanc ‘Serial-X-Energy’ (2019-2023), Energy ‘MOFtoH2’ (2022-2025), Blanc ‘Magic-N’ (2024-2027).
Industrial collaborations: PSA/Stellantis (Open-lab), Total Energies, EDF, L’Oréal, St Gobain, Tronox, ITP, Solvay, Michelin, St Gobain; Startups (framergy, Teqoya, Celescreen, Boulton)…

Responsabilities

• • Head of the Paris Region priority project MaTerRE (2022-2026) dedicated to sustainable materials for the energy transition (12 M€, >500 researchers). Head of the Paris Region priority project ‘Respore’ (2017-2021) dedicated to porous solids (12 M€ euros, >300 researchers).
  • Editorial board of EurJIC (2016-2024), Matter (Cell press) (2019-2023); peer reviewer CSR (2020-2023); associate editor of Scientific Reports (2023-).
  • Member of the international MOF conferences’ commission of the IZA (2012-).  EuroMOF International Scientific Committee (2015-). Board member of French zeolite association (2010-2017). Chair of the French MOFs annual meetings (2018-2023); chair of the EuroMOFs international conference 2019, chair of the 2021 international symposium ‘Porous solids : unity in diversity’.
  • Member of the scientific council of the chemistry institute of CNRS (2010-2014).
  • ERC CoG panel member (2017, 2019), ERC StG panel member (2021, 2023). Expert for the Energy National program in Norway (2014). Expert for the DOE (EFRC projects) (USA) (2016, 2018). Expert in Evaluation GEV03 for the eValuation of Quality of Research in Italy (2012-2013). Panel member of FCT (Portugal) nanomaterials (2018, 2020). DFG evaluation committee member or referee (2020-2021). Swiss National Science Foundation referee (2021-2024).
  • Member of the energy committee of the French academy of sciences (2024-). Member of the think tank ‘Zenon’ dedicated to the energy transition from PSL university (2024-).
  • Vice-director of the chemistry graduate program of PSL university (2020-). Teaching courses (12 hours per year) at the ICI Master (levels 1 and 2) from PSL and the 3d year at ESPCI.

Awards and distinctions

• CNRS Bronze medal (2006) – FP7 ERC grant ‘BioMOFs’ (2008-2013 – French Chemical Society Solid State Chemistry award (2011) – Berthelot Medal/Prix Fondé de l’état from the French academy of Sciences (2016)

5 selected recent publications

1) Synthetic Aspects and Characterisation Needs in MOF Chemistry – From Discovery to Applications, A. Y. Ozturk, B. Achenbach, N. Stock, G. Maurin, C. Serre, Adv. Mater., 2025, adma.202411359R2
2) Unraveling the mechanisms of zirconium metal-organic frameworks-based mixed-matrix membranes preventing polysulfide shuttling, W. Lu, Z. Pang, A. Lamaire, F. Liu, S. Dai, M. L. Pinto, R. Demir-Cakan, K. Ooi Tan, V. Van Speybroeck, V. Pimenta, C. Serre, Small Sci. 2024, 4, 2300339, doi.org/10.1002/smsc.202300339
3) Highly defective ultra-small M(IV)-MOF nanocrystals, S. Dai, C. Simms, G. Patriarche, M. Daturi, A. Tissot, T. Parac-Vogt, C. Serre; Nat. Comm., 2024, 15, 3334,  https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-47426-x
4) A scalable robust microporous Al-MOF for post-combustion carbon capture; B. Chen, D. Fan, R. V. Pinto, I. Dovgaliuk, S. Nandi, D. Chakraborty, N. Heymans, G. De Weireld, F. Nouar, G. Maurin, G. Mouchaham, C. Serre; Advanced Science, 2024, 10.1002/advs.202401070
5) When Polymorphism in Metal-Organic Frameworks Enables Water Sorption Profile Tunability for Enhancing Heat Allocation Performance; T. J. Matemb Ma Ntep, M. Wahiduzzaman, E. Laurenz, I. Cornu, G. Mouchaham, I. Dovgaliuk, S. Nandi, K. Knop, C. Jansen, F. Nouar, P. Florian, G. Füldner, G. Maurin, C. Janiak, C. Serre, Adv. Mater., 2023, 2211302; https://doi.org/10.1002/adma.202211302

Publications