Biography

Odile Eisenstein received her Ph. D degree in 1977 from the University of Paris-Sud in chemical physics. One year later she joined the group of Prof. J.D. Dunitz at the ETH as a post-doctoral fellow. During her studies she was fascinated by the Woodward-Hoffmann rules and therefore she decided to do a second post-doctoral stay at the Cornell University in the Group of R. Hoffmann in 1979 as a NATO fellow. In 1982 she became Assistant Professor at the University of Michigan and in 1985 CNRS Director at the University of Paris-Sud. Since 1996 Odile Eisenstein is the head of theoretical chemistry Department at the University of Montpellier 2, France.

She has specialized in the use of quantum theoretical methods for the study of catalytic reaction mechanisms. Her research focus is the use of computational methods and mainly DFT calculations to understand the structure and reactivity of transition metal complexes in strong collaboration with experimental groups. Selected topics: metal hydrides, hydrogen transfer, olefin metathesis catalysts on silica, single bond activation (HH, CH, CF, SiH ) etc...

Prof. Eisenstein is author of more than 270 articles, Editor in Chief for the New Journal of Chemistry (1993-2000), and member of the advisory editorial board of Chem. Soc. Rev. and many other journals.

Her research contributions have been recognized through many awards and distinctions. This year she has been honored with the ACS Award of Organometallic Chemistry and in 2006 was elected member of the International Academy of Quantum Molecular Science. Odile Eisenstein always stayed close to experimental chemists and working in close collaboration with them. With the Dalton Division Award in 2005, the experimental community honored her work to bring together both computational and experimental chemistry.

When Odile Eisenstein is not working she likes reading, painting and collecting art.