Today's Date:

2005 Nobel Prize

Letter from Jacques Chirac, President of the Republic, to Yves Chauvin, Nobel Prizewinner in Chemistry.

October 5, 2005

Professor Chauvin,

You have just received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, jointly with Professors Robert Grubbs and Richard Schrock, for your work leading to the identification of the metathesis mechanism in organic synthesis.

I want to extend to you my warmest congratulations.

This award crowns a very brilliant career as a researcher at the Institut français du Pétrole and fruitful collaboration with the chemicals industry.

Your basic research has led to a host of applications in medicine, plastics and biomass fuels.

Your award honours our country and the whole French scientific community.

It encourages our country’s ambition in the basic sciences, an ambition at the heart of the public authorities’ efforts to promote France’s intellectual influence and prepare the future.

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