Biography

Hervé This, Physical Chemist at Inrae and Professor at AgroParisTech, is Director of the Molecular Gastronomy Group, in the UMR SayFood (0782) of AgroParisTech,
He is also the director of the Inrae-AgroParisTech International Centre for Molecular and Physical Gastronomy.

After his degree from the Ecole Supérieure de Physique et de Chimie de Paris (ESPCI Paristech) and graduation in Literature (University Paris IV), he began his studies in the laboratory that he had at home, while he was pursuing a career in scientific publishing, first at Belin Publishing inc, then at Pour la Science, the French Edition of Scientific American. At the same time, he was collaborating to France Culture, and was Scientific Director of the scientific TV series Archimedes (Arte) and Pi=3.14 (France 5).

He proposed a modernization of culinary activities (“Molecular Cooking”) as early as 1980, and created the scientific discipline called Molecular Gastronomy in 1988, with the late Nicholas Kurti (1908-1998).

After his PhD (1995) on La gastronomie moléculaire et physique (members of the jury Pierre Gilles de Gennes, Jean-Marie Lehn, Pierre Potier, Georges Bram, M. Petroff, Christian Conticini), he was invited by Jean-Marie Lehn to conduct his studies at the Laboratoire de Chimie des Interactions Moléculaires, of the Collège de France.
He moved to this lab full time in 2000, being appointed by INRA.
This year, he defended his Habilitation à diriger des recherches (jury: Guy Ourisson, Etienne Guyon, Alain Fuchs, Georges Bram, Xavier Chapuisat, Pierre Gagnaire) at the University of Orsay (today Paris Saclay).

In April 2006, while he was moving to AgroParisTech, the French Academy of Sciences asked him to create the Fondation Science & Culture Alimentaire, of which he was appointed the Scientific Director.
Hervé This has been frequently requested by French Ministries to develop projects: new curricula for teaching culinary practices, new ways of teaching science in schools and in colleges, creating an Advanced Studies Institute for Gastronomy… Member of many committes, he runs monthly Seminars of molecular gastronomy and Courses on Molecular Gastronomy, delivering many lectures. He writes regular columns in journals, and he is the author of several books.

Honorary member of various culinary Academies, Member of the Académie d’Agriculture de France; Member of the Académie de Stanislas; Member of the Royal Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters of Belgium; Member of the European Academy of Science, Arts and Letters, Member of the Académie d'Alsace, he is the recipient of many awards such as the Franqui professorship (University of Liège), the Grand Prix des Sciences de l’Aliment by the International Association of Gastronomy.

Hervé This is Officer in the Ordre des Arts et Lettres, Commandeur in the Ordre du Mérite Agricole, Officer in the Ordre des Palmes Académiques, and Knight in the Order of the Légion d’Honneur.

Right now, on top of his researches on F@L systems, he is also actively involved in :
- the development of new groups of Molecular gastronomy all over the world
- the development of the International Journal of Molecular Gastronomy
- the development of the Notes Académiques de l'Académie d'agriculture de France
- the promotion of Note by Note Cooking, as the next big global culinary trend: this means preparing dishes using pure compounds instead of using plant or animal tissues. Indeed this is "synthetic food".