Professor Eric G. Derouanne obtained in 1968 his MSc in Chemistry at Princeton University and his Dr.Sc. at the University of Liège. He then became a Research Associate of FNRS (Belgium). In 1973, he was appointed as Professor at the Facultés universitaires Notre-Dame de la Paix (FUNDP) in Namur, Belgium, where he has been the Director of the Laboratory of Catalysis at FUNDP. In 1995, he became Full Professor and Director of the Lervehulme Centre for Innovative Catalysis at the University of Liverpool. His contributions to catalysis have been recognised by the Ciapetta Lectureship of the North American Catalysis Society (1981), the Catalysis Lectureship of the Société Chimique de France (1993), and the 1994 Francqui Prize. He is a Corresponding Member of the Royal Academy of Belgium, Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Molecular Catalysis, and President of the European Federation of the Catalysis Societies (EFCATS).