Jean-Marie Lehn

Jean-Marie Lehn is a French chemist who shared the 1987 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for developing and using molecules with structure-specific interactions, helping establish supramolecular chemistry.

Donald J. Cram: An American chemist who shared the 1987 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for work on host–guest chemistry. Cram shared the prize with Lehn for designing molecules that selectively bind other molecules.
Molecular recognition: Selective binding between molecules through complementary shape, charge, and chemical interactions. Lehn’s host–guest systems make molecular recognition a central design principle.
Supramolecular chemistry: The chemistry of complex systems formed by molecules connected through noncovalent interactions. Lehn helped establish this field as a distinct extension of molecular chemistry.
Molecular machines: Molecular-scale devices that use controlled structural changes to perform specific operations. Lehn’s dynamic molecular systems helped inspire efforts to design function at the molecular scale.
Charles J. Pedersen: An American chemist who discovered crown ethers and shared the 1987 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Pedersen’s crown ether discovery helped launch the molecular-recognition research Lehn extended.
Host–guest chemistry: Chemistry in which a host molecule selectively binds a guest within a cavity or binding site. Lehn used designed hosts to bind guests selectively and investigate molecular interactions.
Stereochemistry: The study of the three-dimensional arrangement of atoms and its effects on chemical behavior. Three-dimensional fit and molecular shape influence the selectivity of Lehn’s host molecules.
Dynamic combinatorial chemistry: A method that lets reversible reactions generate libraries whose components can adapt to a target. It extends molecular recognition into systems that select and reorganize their own components.
Hermann Emil Fischer: A German chemist who introduced the lock-and-key model of molecular recognition in 1894. Lehn’s account of selective molecular recognition builds on Fischer’s influential analogy.
Crown ether: A cyclic polyether whose oxygen atoms can bind metal cations within its ring. Crown ethers exemplify how a host’s cavity and binding sites select particular guests.

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