Professor Yves Gnanou is the Dean for Physical Sciences and Engineering (PSE). Professor Gnanou joined KAUST from the École Polytechnique in Paris where he held the role of Vice President of Academic Affairs and of Research.
Prior to that, he successively held the position of Professor and Director of the “Laboratoire de Chimie des Polymères Organiques” (LCPO) at Bordeaux University (France) and Head of the Chemistry Department at the headquarters of the “Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique” (CNRS) in Paris. During his tenure in Bordeaux he was also Adjunct Professor at the University of Florida from 2002-2007 and a Visiting Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, USA from 1989-1990.
Professor Gnanou received his PhD in Polymer Chemistry in 1985 from the L. Pasteur University (Strasbourg). His research interests currently focus on the design of metal-free “green” catalysts for chain and step-growth polymerizations and on the assembly of original polymeric architectures by novel synthetic methods.
In 2003 Professor Gnanou received the Langevin Prize and the Berthelot Medal from the French Academy of Sciences and in 2009 was elected as a Member of the French Academy of Agriculture.
In 2011 he was awarded the Title Chevalier dans l’ordre des Palmes Académiques and in 2013 he was awarded the Title Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Palmes Acad.