Didier Astruc (born 9 June 1946 in Versailles) carried out his studies in chemistry in Rennes. After a Ph. D. with professor R. Dabard in organometallic chemistry, he did post-doctoral studies with professor R. R. Schrock (2005 Nobel Laureate) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Cambridge, Massachusetts, in the U.S. and later a sabbatical year with professor K. P. C. Vollhardt at the University of California at Berkeley. He became a CNRS Director of research in Rennes, then in 1983 full Professor of Chemistry at the University Bordeaux 1. He is known for his work on “Electron-Reservoir” complexes and dendritic molecular batteries, catalytic processes (olefin metathesis, C-C coupling, catalysis in water) using nanoreactors and molecular recognition using gold nanoparticles and meta