Applied Catalysis B: Environmental 46 (2003) 635–637

Obituary to Professor Paul Grange (1943–2003)

Paul Grange had reserved a few days for vacation.He was assisting his daughter, who had just gradu-ated and wished to create a small enterprise in a partof the small family property. One of the associatedprojects was to erect a wind turbine. He had justpaid a visit to neighbours to explain the innovationand the ecological advantages of wind turbines inthis hilly rural landscape south-west of Lyon, wheresuch devices are stillsurprising. When returning, hesuddenly collapsed, and died in a few minutes, if notseconds. This was on the 11 July.

Paul Grange was born in Lyon during the war. Hegraduated from the University of Lyon, where he ob-tained his Ph.D. in 1970. For his military obligationshe chose volunteer service overseas in the NationalUniversity of La Plata (Argentina). This was the begin-ning of a continuous co-operation with South America,and initiated a not less long and fruitful co-operationwith Spain. Very wisely, he did not return directly toFrance, but made the “grand tour”, from Patagoniato the very north of the South American continent. It

took a long time before the guidebooks in Spanish orEnglish could give you so much practical advice ashe, not only on places to visit, but also on practicalways to travel very cheaply and to avoid trouble.

Almost immediately after his return home, he ob-tained a post-doctoral position in the recently createdLaboratory of Catalysis and Solid State Chemistryin the newly split University of Louvain in Belgium.More accurately, he became half of the two peoplestaff, the other person being myself, arrived 2 yearsbefore. To be honest, we were lucky to have the helpof a secretary a few hours per week. We had a singleroom–office–laboratory, but actually this created noproblem at all. We had some furniture indeed (allwood, sturdy style, make: Université de Louvain,1948), but no equipment. This was the start of thelaboratory that we created together. This was a greatand exciting enterprise. Surprisingly, a relatively largeamount of research money came in (100% privateat the start). And some students took the risk withus, Spanish-speaking students, not surprisingly. Thisperiod was very good teaching for the whole staff.Very soon, laboratory grouping and administrativerearrangements let behind the pioneering period, andpermitted the scientific development. This was madeeasier by the moving from the old city of Leuven(Louvain) to Louvain-la-Neuve, where everybodywas happy to abandon the wooden technical benches.In a much larger group (“Groupe de Physico-Chimieminérale et de Catalyse”, non-official organisationsare usually particularly efficient), Paul Grange hadplenty of projects. In this large group he could ex-ert with remarkable skill his smoothing action inconflicts, reserving for internal use his capacity togrouch and grumble and to emit sarcastic opinionsagainst bureaucracy. Conversely, humour and jokes

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636 Obituary / Applied Catalysis B: Environmental 46 (2003) 635–637

were lavishly shared in a much more equitable way.He never abandoned this attitude. The innumerablefriends participating in the funeral ceremony and themessages received show that, through all his life,he had made indefectible friends among students,post-docs and colleagues, all over the world.

In the course of years, the scientific activity ofProfessor Grange progressively shifted away fromsolid state chemistry, his initial interest in the Institutde Recherche sur la Catalyse of Villeurbanne, wherehe had actually conducted his Ph.D. work. But hisresults in the synthesis of high transition tempera-ture superconductors and outstanding success withhighly dispersed nitrides and oxynitrides and the veryoriginal synthesis of more complicated compoundsschematically represented by AlPON–ZrPON–AlGaPON–VAlON, made this background crucial.The “pioneer” flavour of this period continued in tworespects, fully. The oxides were followed by sulphidedcatalysts, carbides, nitrides, then again oxides, andhydrotreatment followed by hydrogenation, some acidcatalysis, base catalysis and complete oxidation of pol-lutants. Changes permitted the natural dynamism andimagination of Paul Grange to develop. He even forgotthe odd-shaped genetically selected drosophila flies ofthe geneticist next door that perodically invaded ourdesks in the pioneering days of Leuven. But pioneersalso have characteristics, and this was not spared tohim. In the course of 31 years, he was forced to hopfrom position to position no less than seven times:when universities are forced to reduce their staff, yourdiploma and experience never simultaneously coin-cide with job descriptions in vacation announcements.In spite of that, or because of that, he decided to havesome sort of a “sabbatical leave”, in 1983–1984, atINTEVEP in Caracas, a stay rich in fruitful teachings,not only in science and technological development.The period following this stay abroad led to consider-able extensions of activity, Paul Grange having thenthe full responsibility of a large part of the laboratoryprograms.

The last change took place in 1996. This wasthe incredible promotion directly from part-timeassistant professor (“Chargé de Cours”) to full pro-fessor (“Professeur Ordinaire”). Fortunately, uni-versities can sometimes forget bureaucracy. Fromthat time on, Professor Grange could combine moreapplication-oriented developments with fundamental

research on advanced subject of catalysis (especiallyoxynitrides, base catalysis, aspects of NOx SCR). Hecould create the nucleus of a bench scale laboratory orworkshop for novel catalyst manufacture, and consid-erably expand the work on gas purification, essentiallythrough complete oxidation. He created and headeda small team approaching new purification processesin a global way, associating science, technologicalaspects, market studies, search for business opportu-nities, and financial planning. A bench scale plant fora specific industrial problem was constructed recently.It was even possible to restart some HDS work, thistime without risking conflict with the biologists whosemicrobial cultures had allegedly been damaged byH2S emissions in the old Leuven (ventilation in the“room–office–laboratory” in Leuven was not perfect).That brought peace in the relations with biologists. Inthe impressive development of environmental cataly-sis, the work was most often directly related to spe-cific problems of industry, but nevertheless permittedthe completion of 29 Ph.D. theses and 43 gradu-ate research programs, and the publication of 418articles.

As head of the laboratory Paul Grange showed anincredible dynamism and relentless activity in scien-tific matters and the applications of science. He simul-taneously engaged in an impressive development ofother actions, initiating co-operative programs in Bel-gium and with foreign universities (Bucharest, Tunis,Caen, Argentina), and creating one of the branchesof CERTECH, a university subsidiary for appliedresearch. In UCL, he became member of variouscommittees, was selected as member of the ResearchAdvisory Council of the university, where his workimpressed the rector and the colleagues of all depart-ments, and was elected chairman of the Departmentof Applied Chemistry and Bio-Industries a few daysbefore his death. In less than 7 years Paul Grange wasable to fully develop his broad capacities. Still pio-neer, but alsoconducteur d’hommes. But the price wasworries and work overload, with that terrible end inJuly.

B. Delmon

(P. Grange was correspondent for the Newsbrief Sec-tion, Applied Catalysis, until 31 December 1989;member of the editorial board, Applied Catalysis A,1998–2000).

Obituary / Applied Catalysis B: Environmental 46 (2003) 635–637 637

M. PrimetLACE-CNRS, UMR 5634, 43 Boulevard du Onze

Universite Claude Bernard Lyon 1Villeurbane Cedex 69622, France

Tel.: +33-4-72-44-81-50/43-14-22fax: +33-4-72-43-27-94

E-mail address: michel.primet@univ-lyon1.fr(M. Primet)