Emanuelle Despagnet-Ayoub’s research interests lie in the development of transition-metal complexes for energy storage and polymerization; the photochemistry of aromatic compounds; and the activation of small molecules via electrochemical processes. Read her Oxy Story profile.
Emmanuelle Despagnet-Ayoub did her PhD at the University of Paul Sabatier in Toulouse (France) on carbene chemistry under the supervision of Pr. Guy Bertrand and Dr. Didier Bourissou, then she joined Caltech (Pasadena, USA) as a Postdoctoral Fellow with Pr. Robert H. Grubbs where she designed and synthesized new ruthenium catalysts for olefin metathesis reactions. After one year as research scientist at Materia, Inc (Pasadena, USA), she got appointed in 2006 Faculty at the CNRS (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, France) where her research interest was mainly focused on the use of transition metal complexes in catalysis from activation of small molecules to polymerization. In 2018, she accepted a double affiliation as Technologist at JPL (Pasadena, CA) and Associate Professor at Occidental College (Los Angeles, USA).