Christian Serre (born 27 August 1970) is a French chemist and academic. He is a research director at the National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) and the head of the Institute of Porous Materials of Paris.
Serre's research interests include the synthesis and applications of porous hybrid solids, such as metal-organic frameworks. He has received the CNRS Bronze Medal, the Solid State Chemistry Award from the French Chemical Society, and the Berthelot Medal from the French Academy of Sciences. He is also an elected member of the French Academy of Sciences.
Education Serre earned an engineering degree from the École Supérieure de Physique et de Chimie Industrielles de la Ville de Paris (ESPCI) in 1994. He completed an M.Sc. in Physical Chemistry at Université Paris VI in 1995. In 1999, he received his Ph.D. in Materials Chemistry from the University of Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines.
Career Serre's academic career includes his appointment as a CNRS research scientist at the Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines from 2001 to 2009. He then became CNRS research director at the same institute from 2009 to 2016. In 2016, he established the Institute of Porous Materials of Paris at the École Normale Supérieure, ESPCI Paris, the CNRS, and PSL University. He also headed the Paris region priority project 'Respore' from 2017 to 2021 and has also been a director of the 'MaTerRE' Paris region priority project. In 2021, he co-founded the startup Squair Tech.
Research Serre's research has centered on the design and applications of metal–organic frameworks (MOFs), to improve performance in advanced nanomaterials with a focus on controlled structural modifications.
Serre worked on the synthesis of iron-, chromium- and aluminum based MIL series, demonstrating how typology control and linker functionalization can be used to tune pore environments and generate large-pore, robust structures. He has also highlighted the scale-up and development of “green” MOFs, for sustainable synthesis practices on MOF structure and performance.
Serre's research on robust scalable MOFs has explored polymorphism, hydrophilicity, and water adsorption.
In the area of nanomaterials, Serre has worked on biocompatible biodegradable MOF nanoparticles for imaging and targeted delivery and has introduced synthesis routes that enabled uniform MOF nanoparticles.
Awards and honors 2006 – Bronze Medal, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) 2011 – Solid State Chemistry Award, French Chemical Society 2016 – Berthelot Medal, French Academy of Sciences 2024 – Member, French Academy of Sciences Selected articles
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