Louis Fensterbank's research focuses on the discovery of new molecular transformations involving radical or organometallic processes, and their combination by photocatalysis. He is also developing new organosilyl derivatives with Lewis acid or biological probe properties. Recently, he has turned his attention to the design of new surface ligands (carbenes) for the optimized preparation of metal nanoparticles.
An engineer from theÉcole supérieure de chimie industrielle de Lyon (now CPE) in 1990, Louis Fensterbank obtained a PhD from Stony Brook University on the chemistry of silanols in 1993. In 1994, he joined the Pierre-et-Marie-Curie University (now Sorbonne University) as an ATER, before being recruited as a CNRS research fellow in 1995. In 2004, he was appointed professor at Sorbonne University. He was Director of the Paris-Centre Master of Chemistry (2007-2014) and of the Paris Institute of Molecular Chemistry (2017-2022).
He has received several awards, including the CNRS silver medal in 2017. He is also a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (2016), a senior member of the Institut Universitaire de France (2021) and a member of the Academia Europaea (2023).