Jacques Livage

Anecrological note

Dear colleague,
It is with great sadness that we announce the death of French chemist Jacques Livage, on Sunday, November 9, 2025, at the age of 87. He was elected Correspondent on May 3, 1999, then Member of the French Academy of Sciences on November 5, 2001, in the Chemistry section.
A great name in materials chemistry and soft chemistry has passed away. Jacques Livage had a profound impact on French and international research, opening up new avenues in the design and understanding of materials.
Trained at the École nationale supérieure de chimie de Paris, Jacques Livage became a professor at the Université Pierre-et-Marie-Curie in 1974, where he founded the Laboratoire Chimie de la Matière Condensée de Paris. He was appointed Chair of Condensed Matter Chemistry at the Collège de France from 2001 to 2009, and elected to the Académie des Sciences in November 2001.
Recognized as the initiator of sol-gel chemistry in France, alongside the work of C. Jeffrey Brinker and George W. Scherer in the USA, Jacques Livage helped structure the international materials chemistry community and lay the foundations for a field that has become central to materials science today. A world-renowned scientist, Jacques Livage is considered one of the founders of soft chemistry, an innovative approach to materials synthesis at low temperatures, inspired by the biological processes of mineralization, as he described it in an article in Le Monde in October 1977. He developed and advanced sol-gel processes, enabling the creation of glasses, ceramics and composite materials from precursors in solution, thus avoiding the very high-temperature treatments of conventional routes. He was also one of the pioneers of bioinspired chemistry, drawing on natural mineralization processes to design functional materials, particularly those of diatoms, which he described with passion.
Jacques Livage leaves a lasting and profound scientific legacy in materials chemistry. The French scientific community today loses a major figure: not only an exceptional researcher, but also a builder of bridges between chemistry, biology and materials science.
Beyond the scientist and professor, Jacques was for many a friend, always available, attentive and of great humanity. His kindness, humor and infectious passion will be deeply missed. We will remember the good times we shared, the inspiring exchanges and the positive impact he had on our lives and on the way we do science.
Our thoughts are with his family, his loved ones and all those who had the good fortune to work alongside him. His memory and his work will continue to inspire future generations.
We would like to inform you that his funeral will take place on Wednesday, November 19, 2025 at 2:00 pm in the Church of Saint Matthieu in Bures-sur-Yvette (8, rue du Général Leclerc - 91140 Bures-sur-Yvette) - https://www.simplifia.fr/avis-de-deces/jacques--alain--yves-livage-994173
With our deepest respect and sincere greetings,

The Board of the Académie des sciences