Dubois, Jacques-Emile

Born April 13, 1920 in Lille. During the Second World War was a member of the French Resistance. He studied at the University of Grenoble , after graduating from university, remained in it as a junior chemistry teacher (assistant de chimie) at the Faculty of Natural Sciences. In 1947, he received a Ph.D. in physics. In 1949-1957 he worked at the University of Saar (including the founder and director of the Institute of Chemistry, University). After Saar joined the Federal Republic of Germany, he returned to France, where he became a professor and head of the department of physical and organic chemistry at the Faculty of Natural Sciences of the University of Paris , and after the separation of the Sorbonne, at the University of Paris VII named after Denis Diderot . In 1988, he ceased active teaching, becoming a distinguished professor.

He took part in the work of many scientific and governmental institutions of France, here are just some of his posts:

• Technical Advisor to the Minister of National Education Christian Fouche (1962–1963);
• Member of the Management Board of the Research Development Institute (1963-1975);
• Director of Research and Testing Centers of the Ministry of Defense (1965–1977);
• Member of the Administrative Council of the National Center for Scientific Research (1965–1977);
• Member of the Scientific Council of the Commissariat for Atomic Energy (1971–1977)
• President of the French Society of Physical Chemistry (1974–1976);
• Director of Biology, Curie Institute (1977–1980);
• Vice President of the National Center for Chemical Information (1973–1990) ^[3] .
• Scientific Director Compagnie générale d'électricité (1979–1983)

In addition, he played a prominent role in international scientific organizations: in 1969-1977, he was chairman of the IUPAC interdepartmental commission (Interdivisional Committee of Machine Documentation), was vice president (1981–88) and president (1994–98) of the Data Committee for Science and technology ( CODATA ) - an interdisciplinary committee of the International Council for Science, established to collect, critically evaluate, store and retrieve important data for the tasks of science and technology ^[4] .

Author of numerous scientific papers in the field of kinetics, thermodynamics and chemical informatics. One of the first to apply graph theory to represent and classify organic molecules. In 1965, he developed the DARC system (an abbreviation of the words “Description, acquisition, restitution, corrélation”), which allows searching for compounds using structural formulas ^[5] . Subsequently, this system, in particular, was used in pharmaceutical research to search for new molecules and predict their properties due to the similarity of structures ^[6] . In 1981, collaboration between a team of scientists led by Dubois, the National Center for Chemical Information and Questel led to the release of the first commercially available system to search for structures in the CAS Registry database.

• Berthelot Medal (1965) of the French Academy of Sciences - for his work in the field of physical organic chemistry
• Jacker Prize (1965)
• Grand prix de la technique de la Ville de Paris (1975) - for the development of the DARC system
• Herman Skolnik Award of the American Chemical Society (1992)
• Commander of the Legion of Honor
• Commander of the Order of Merit
• Commander of the Order of Academic Palms
• Medal of Resistance

Biography on Who's Who in France