Eric Francotte

“After completing a PhD in organic chemistry in Belgium, and two years postdoc at the Geneva University, I joined the central research laboratories of a large pharmaceutical company at a time where chirality was still a neglected matter in drug research and development.” Motivated by this statement, Eric Francotte developed innovative chiral stationary phases which have become the most used ones for the chromatographic separation of stereoisomers. They are applied worldwide in numerous laboratories in the industry and academia. “This is a great source of satisfaction as the technique considerably facilitates the analysis and production of chiral drugs with safer pharmacological profiles,” he says. Stimulated by the same motivation of developing safer tools Eric was also, already more than 25 years ago, a pioneer in exploring the utilization of SFC for chiral separations. “I am happy to see that SFC has now reached a high degree of acceptance and that its application range is expanding every day.”