Жан М.Ж. Фреше: Полимер химиясының көрнекті ғалымы

French American chemist

Jean M. J. Fréchet (born August 1944) is a French American chemist and professor emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley. He is best known for his work on polymers including polymer supported chemistry, chemically amplified photoresists, dendrimers, macroporous separation media, and polymers for therapeutics. Ranked among the top 10 chemists in 2021, he has authored nearly 900 scientific paper and 200 patents including 96 US patents. His research areas include organic synthesis and polymer chemistry applied to nanoscience and nanotechnology with emphasis on the design, fundamental understanding, synthesis, and applications of functional macromolecules. Fréchet is an elected fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Chemical Society, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and an elected member of the US National Academy of Sciences, the US National Academy of Engineering, and the Academy of Europe (Academia Europaea).

Fréchet received his first university degree at the Institut de Chimie et Physique Industrielles (now CPE) in Lyon, France, before coming to the US for studies in organic and polymer chemistry under Conrad Schuerch at the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry, and at Syracuse University   (Ph. D. 1971). He was on the Chemistry Faculty at the University of Ottawa in Canada from 1973 to 1987, when he became the IBM Professor of Polymer Chemistry at Cornell University. In 1997 Fréchet joined Chemistry faculty at the University of California, Berkeley and was named the Henry Rapoport Chair of Organic Chemistry in 2003 and Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering in 2005. From 2010 to 2019 he served as the first Vice President for Research, then Senior Vice President for Research, Innovation, and Economic Development at the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology.

Fréchet’s early work focused on polymer supported chemistry with the first approach to the solid phase synthesis of oligosaccharides and pioneering work on polymeric reagents and polymer protecting groups. In 1979 Working with C. G. Willson at IBM during a sabbatical leave, he invented chemically amplified photoresists for micro and nanofabrication. This widely used patented technology which enables the extreme miniaturization of microelectronic devices is now ubiquitous for the fabrication of the very powerful computing and communication equipment in worldwide use. The addition of photogenerated bases led to additional advances in chemically amplified resists. In 1990 working with Craig Hawker at Cornell, he developed the convergent synthesis of dendrimers as well as approaches to hyperbranched polymers. In 1992, working with F. Svec at Cornell, he reported the first preparation of macroporous polymer monoliths that are now used in a variety of chemical separations. Later work at Berkeley saw the development of polymers and dendrimers as carriers for targeted therapeutics and successful approaches to new organic materials for transistors and solar cells.