Michel Froment, biographical data


Michel Froment (left) is welcomed by the mayor of Cordoba, Mr. Martin.

Michel Froment was born in 1931 near Paris. He studied Physics and Chemistry at the old Sorbonne in Paris. He got his Ph. D in 1958 for a thesis in the Laboratory of Professor E. Darmois, under the direction of Doctor I. Epelboin . During the preparation of his thesis he obtained a position in the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS). During all his carrier he was appointed by CNRS. After his retirement he obtained a position of Emeritus Director. In 1966 the laboratory named Physique des Liquides et Electrochimie, moved to the Jussieu campus of the Pierre et Marie Curie University. He was Director of this Laboratory from 1980, after the I. Epelboin death, until 1995. Something like 270 publications correspond to his research contributions. They concern the study of electrochemical surface treatments like electropolishing, corrosion, electrodeposition, anodic oxidation of metals and semiconductors. In the case of these last materials, he was particularly interested by problems in relation with the conversion of solar energy like the electrodeposition of thin semiconductors layers (CdS, CdTe, ZnSe…) and their integration in solar batteries. In this field he was responsible (1983-1986) of a French program of photoelectrochemistry including about ten teams. A particular effort was made to characterize the surfaces electrochemically treated, or the products obtained (electrodeposits, oxides, passive layers…) using physical methods like electron microscopy, electron spectroscopy, EXAFS, nuclear analysis… Many of these researches were conducted in relation with industrial partners. This is why he served as a member of industrial scientific councils in the field of metallurgy, batteries, microelectronics. He was President of the French Society of Electron Microscopy. From the 90 years he was particularly interested, in collaboration with physician colleagues, by some crucial problems of microelectronics like the structure of the interface silicon/thin silicon oxide layers. After his retirement he launched, with colleagues of his University, a start up for the application of highly charged ions like Ar17+ for different operations of microelectronics. He received a Research Award of the Electrodeposition Division of ECS. He is a Fellow of the Electrochemical Society. He was a founder member of the European Academy of Surface Treatments and he is member of the European Academy of Arts, Sciences and Humanities.

ISE memories
I was President of ISE during the 1991 and 1992 years. Then I was in charge of the presidence of the Executive Committee meetings organized before the beginning of the plenary meeting sessions : Lausanne and Montreux (Switzerland-1991), Cordoba (Argentina-1992). The Cordoba meeting was the first ISE meeting organized in South America. It coincided with the 500 hundred years anniversary of the discovery of America.
During the 1991 year I was invited to participate, as ISE President, to the Italian (Modena) and the Yugoslavian (Sarajevo) electrochemistry meetings. The Sarajevo town in June 1991 was shrouded in a special atmosphere, with the absence of tourists, just before the beginning of the Bosnian tragedy ; the meeting was held in buildings located in the Igman mountain ; it were used during the Olympic games and completely destroyed during the conflict.
During my term of President I discussed in Lyon with Dr Jean Tacussel and our treasurer, in order to establish an ISE Prize.